Speccie Trading Places by 12th September
 

A bit self-regarding, this one. But perhaps I will think of something. I am sure you will.

No. 2764: trading places
You are invited to provide an example of a Spectator columnist stepping into a fellow columnist’s shoes — Rod Liddle deputising for Dot Wordsworth, for example, or Jeremy Clarke standing in for Mary Killen (150 words max). Email entries, if possible, to lucy@spectator.co.uk by midday on 12 September.

Who they? Since all I ever see of the Spectator is the competition pages here, I think I shall be sitting this one out. Actually, since I'm going on holiday on Sunday, it's more a case of 'lying this one out on the beach'.

excellent!
 

At last – an opportunity to channel my inner Rod Liddle.

I once heard someone describe Rod Liddle as 'a man who seems to have a cigarette stubbed out in his soul.' The comment was too good to have been original, but seems to me entirely apt.

I once met Rod Liddle briefly; my daughter and I were in the audience of a pilot radio show and he was on one of the teams.
Afterwards, outside, he was frantically smoking a cigarette and I said a few kind words as I passed him on the steps. He asked me if I really thought he'd been all right on the show; I don't think I've ever seen anyone so nervous.
(I wondered what he'd been like before the show!)

I like his column in The Speccie - he's acerbic and isn't afraid to say exactly what he thinks; you can forget political correctness or any kind of pandering to popular opinion. The man quaking after that radio programme was an altogether different image! (Rod Liddle is human after all.)