Death of London music critic, 76
RIPObituaries are running today for Antony Holden, music critic of the Observer newspaper from 2002 to 2008 and author of biographies of Tchaikovsky, Laurence Olivier and the late Queen Mother. He had been latterly incapacitated by brain cancer.
Holden’s first wife, Amanda, who died two years ago, was a noted librettist, opera translator and annotator.
Holden was a keen poker player.
That might have explained why he was often to be seen sat poker-faced throughout a performance, which he later ripped to shreds in print?
Anthony Holden was of a generation of polymaths that is slowly disappearing: Christopher Hitchens, Martin Amis, the slightly older Clive James. They seemed to be able to turn their talents to anything, from high culture to popular, and to produce vast quantities of work. The devastating thing is that there do not appear to be replacements for any of these talents coming up on the inside. RIP to a hugely gifted man, who will be greatly missed.