The Notorious Mr Crisp

Quentin Crisp does make great soundbite. But of course he was more than that. The word legacy is the first that springs to mind. Gorgeous old puff are another three. And according to Grand Dame himself, he was "born reluctantly on Christmas day in 1908", to his "dismay" he found himself to be "the son of a middle-class middle-brow, middling parents who lived in Sutton".

Near the end of his life, he was still as dryly self deprecating by describing himself on income tax forms as a "retired waif".