Hell hath no fury like feuding columnists. A crushing diatribe by Michael Wolff, who writes for Vanity Fair and the Guardian, against the late Christopher Hitchens adorns the April issue of GQ magazine and is a masterclass in spite and character assassination.
Among Wolff’s observations on Hitchens are that he was “an exaggerated figure of Britishness … the Downton Abbey effect ... the runt of this Brit-lit pack, the courtier and designated promoter [who] emerged as its most famous member” and that Hitch had “the appeal more of a Fox News personality than of an essayist dwelling in the grey areas”.
Wolff adds that “the thin-skinned Hitchens was litigious — he’d cost you money if you crossed him”, and that the frequent “my friend Salman Rushdie” name-dropping was grating.
“I never had any sense of whether he was happy or despairing,” says Wolff. “Lonely or content. Satisfied or self-loathing. But certainly being drunk so much of the time would not suggest he was tiptop.”
Happily for Wolff, Hitch is not around to strike back. Or sue.
