First, thanks to our columnist for more than five years Maria Smith who self-immolates this month (P.67) after years of dealing hard professional truths in the most entertaining, often lyrical and sometimes super-oblique manner. We were proximity columnists, so to speak - she was always a neighbour a page or two back in the centre section and we'd metaphorically wave to each other across the intervening ads, Intelligence calling to Culture. We editors sometimes had to ask what on earth she was on about - she can do the easy-read piece but often eschews it, makes you work a bit. These clarifications became part of the conversation. There was her column written as one long sentence imagined by a panting adolescent. The time she suggested architects should give cars (of ever-increasing price and specification as the column progressed) to over-demanding clients rather than work for them, as it would be cheaper. And our readers always responded well.
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