Laureate For The Departed

Typically unsigned, Telegraph obituaries are written by a stable of contributors. But during Mr. Massingberd's tenure, observers widely agreed, every obit in the paper bore his droll, distinctive stamp. Naturally, he covered the presidents, kings and captains of industry who are the grist of obit pages everywhere. But Mr. Massingberd also sought out eccentrics; having the good fortune to live in Britain, he found them.

One Telegraph obituary, from 1991, opened this way: "The Third Lord Moynihan, who has died in Manila, aged 55, provided through his character and career ample ammunition for critics of the hereditary principle. His chief occupations were bongo drummer, confidence trickster, brothel-keeper, drug-smuggler and police informer."

Another, from 1988, memorialized Peter Langan, a London restaurateur: "Often he would pass out amid the cutlery before doing any damage, but occasionally he would cruise menacingly beneath the tables, biting unwary customers' ankles."

And there was this much-quoted line, also from 1988, which appeared in The Telegraph's obituary of John Allegro. A once-renowned scholar of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Mr. Allegro later advanced a theory that Judaism and Christianity were the products of an ancient cult that worshiped sex and mushrooms. His obit in The Telegraph pronounced him "the Liberace of biblical scholarship."

For the record, I am convivial and I do not suffer fools gladly.