Source: The Guardian, 15 December 2018
December has been such a frenzy that I haven’t managed any entries for a while, but am planning to catch up over the holidays. But was saddened to read of the death of James Erlichman in yesterday’s Guardian. Always liked him and admired his stances on major topics, among them antibiotic resistance and the BSE crisis. a lighthouse to steer by.
And I also recall a piece he did, I think for The Independent, on my role at the more commercial edge of environmentalism. It must have been in 1988 or 1989 – a big article, built around a large cartoon, either of a wolf wearing a sheepskin or vice versa. I genuinely can’t recall which way around it was. The cutting is probably in one of the boxes of cuttings in the summerhouse/garden shed.
But I have mightily appreciated the periodic challenges of such fair, honest and determined critics . While it’s comforting when one-time challengers, like the late Teddy Goldsmith, declare their growing grasp and support for a different line of attack, it’s more useful if lighthouses don ‘t drift over time. In my experience, James didn’t
