On Tuesday, The Evening Standard held a memorial service for Brian Sewell at St James’s, Piccadilly. It was a beautiful service with a wonderful eulogy by Sir Max Hastings. The Guardian has quoted him as follows:

‘He possessed the gifts of all successful polemicists: conceit, passion, wit, literary elegance, an instinctive suspicion of, and disdain for, power and wealth…When I left the paper, he gave me a Victorian watercolour which makes me think of him whenever I pass it on the wall. This was accompanied by a note which was terse, witty and generous. Here was one of a host of kindnesses which explain why Brian was so much appreciated by many of those who lived and worked with him, as he was also by millions of readers, who saw in his view of art a vigorous, sometimes ferocious, common sense, alongside a wondrous eye for beauty, which made him the most famous as well as the most controversial art critic of his time’

Read the full Guardian article here and get your copy of The Man Who Built the Best Car in the World by Brian Sewell here today.