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Pioneering figure who walked with artistic giants
Carolyn Swift's contributions to cultural life in Ireland lasted almost 60 years, and in the course of it she did frequently pioneering work in an astonishing range of cultural and artistic fields - although she herself could be almost dismissive of her achievements and more than once put them down to a "knack" for being in the right place at the right time. p
As an actor Coburn made the word laconic sound verbose
One scene in John Sturges's film The Magnificent Seven (1960) plugs directly into the power of its source, The Seven Samurai : the entrance of James Coburn, who died this week, aged 74, as Britt, "the best with gun and knife". p
Brilliant scholar who became a founding father of Israel
The Israeli statesman Abba Eban, who died last weekend aged 87, used words, with fluency and accuracy, as his most potent weapons. It was Eban who, in 1978, said of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's Yasser Arafat that he "never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity". p
'Angel of Death' who idolised Thatcher
Tall, stooped, lugubrious Sir George Gardiner, who died last weekend aged 67, was a sometime hard-right British journalist who became MP for Reigate from 1974 to 1997. p
