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Among other things, he was the most entertaining writer to have graced the pages of the Racing Post.
Will be missed, whilst not everyone’s cup of tea, as TDK says his acerbic observations frequently brightened up the Post.
Condolences to his family.
Used to enjoy his "just a minute" contributions on the radio when I was young. Sad he had to go.
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Racing’s driest and most humorous scribe since Jeffrey Bernard, both of whose column’s in the old Sporting Life added much colour to the racing experience. Only a man of Milliganesque genius could have thought up the horse name "Dig Up St Edmunds".
What shocking news. Horse racing’s finest writer and an inspiration to anyone who aspired to a life following the circus.
I was only thinking on Saturday that if I saw him at Southwell next season (as I did this), I would break the habit of a lifetime and bother him to shake his hand.
R.I.P Sir Clement and condolences to family.
Chatting to a colleague at work this morning, he said he had heard that Sir Clement Freud had died and, although he didn’t know of him, it was clear from the reports that Sir Clement was a ‘very much respected character’. I’m not sure I could improve on that comment.
R.I.P. Sir Clement
"If you resolve to give up smoking, drinking and loving, you don’t actually live longer; it just seems longer"
Clement Freud
R.I.P.
What a great man he was, they don’t make them like that anymore! I am obviously not the only one who buys a Racing Post on Saturday but ignores everything in it until I have read his column…and then having used the paper all day I generally go back & read the column again.
Great wit, wonderful writer and a loss to all.
Not a bad way to go.
Well into his eighties, still punting, still drinking, still polishing off platters of the finest food imaginable…
I really enjoyed an article he wrote in the Life (I’m almost certain it was him – apologies if not) after Mick Kinane rode a treble on the first day of Royal Ascot in the early ninties.
I was in my teens at the time, a huge fan of Kinane and used to keep a scrapbook with press cuttings of all his big race wins.
The article began ‘I admired, as I have seldom admired anything, the skill and strength and balance and brilliance of Michael Kinane …….’ which thrilled me no end.
However the killer line came later in the article
‘……….. if it were not for my VCR being stuck on Nagnagnag winning at Epsom on Oaks day I would purchase a copy of his triumph on Grand Lodge and play it to the point of extinction!’A great shame, very sad news indeed.
On refection I am going to miss his column very much and the RP is never going to be able to replace it !
I hope they re-run some of his writings to give us chance to read them again !
R.I.P.Well said. I’d love to see someone put out a new printed volume or two of his columns both within and outwith the
Post
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Very sad news, and to an extent quite unexpected, given that he described himself as "horribly hale and hearty" in a
Post
interview just a couple of years ago and was still – I believe – an active point-to-point attendee in the Cambridgeshire area this winter.
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Terrible news- Saturdays won’t be the same without his column. Just A Minute was the best show on radio or TV for years and his dry wit was second to none. He’s gone to the great Bacchanalian racecourse in the sky, where the ham hock is delicious, the claret is well chambred and the favourite always wins the last.
RIP Sir Clement.
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