A Speechwriter Has Died

Longtime Australian Labor Party speechwriter Bob Ellis died last Sunday, and a tribute makes you wish you'd known him—and feel you did.

“He was grubby, funny, wayward and original. He could be wise,” wrote The Guardian’s David Marr about Ellis, who also wrote plays and TV and movie scripts. “The river of words that flowed through him was a thing of awe even among his detractors. At times his life was in disarray and his career in dire straights, but to the end he was a master of his first love: English.”

Marr added, “He won’t rest in peace.”

Yes, we know. —DM