Christopher Hitchens Dies: The Best Of The Hitch Remembered.

The Hitch Remembered.

The literary world was far worse off after Christopher Hitchens died today at the age of 62. Hitch died of complications due to oesophagus cancer. A disease that he refereed to as “Something so predictable and banal that it bores even me.”

Salman Rushdie and Nick Cohen lead the tributes on Facebook and Twitter. Frost has collected some of our favourite articles on Hitch, starting with his brother in a moving piece Peter says what he thinks of when “I think of my brother is ‘courage’. By this I don’t mean the lack of fear which some people have, which enables them to do very dangerous or frightening things because they have no idea what it is to be afraid. I mean a courage which overcomes real fear, while actually experiencing it”.

Christopher Hitchens’ brother, Peter, who is a Daily Mail columnist wrote about his brother: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2075133/Christopher-Hitchens-dead-In-Memoriam-courageous-sibling-Peter-Hitchens.html

Vanity Fair, the magazine he wrote for: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/christopher-hitchens

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2001/08/pinochet-milosevic-henry-kissinger-christopher-hitchens/

A good article he wrote.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2011/01/how_to_make_a_decent_cup_of_tea.html

The BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16212418

On Climate change: http://theidiottracker.blogspot.com/2011/12/christopher-hitchens-on-climate-change.html?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=Luca

http://www.sabotagetimes.com/people/rip-christopher-hitchens-the-world-is-stupider-without-you/

http://www.tatler.com/news/articles/december-2011/in-memory-of-christopher-hitchens

Francis Wheen, Hitchens friend of 30 years; has written a good article and states that Hitchens was not an alcoholic.

Please add your comments and links below in remembrance of a great man.

photo credit: LA1277

Amy Winehouse Was 'Physical Wreck' – Death Leaves A Trail Of Grief And Denials

Amy Winehouse’s grieving mother has said that the singer was “a physical wreck” the day before she died and that her minders had to help her down the stairs. Janis, who suffers from MS, added that Amy was “completely out of it.”

The singer was apparently having weekly health check-ups and her doctor visited her 24 hours before her death but had ‘no concerns.” Her bodyguard, Andrew Morris, also checked on her in the morning, but when he returned in the afternoon, she had died.

After her funeral on Tuesday, Winehouse’s father gave fans her clothes, leaving one fan wearing a vest the singer owned. It also emerged that she was in the process of adopting a poor, 10-year-old, St Lucian girl.

Since the singer’s death, tributes have flooded in, and her family released a statement saying: “Our family has been left bereft by the loss of Amy, a wonderful daughter, sister, niece. She leaves a gaping hole in our lives. We are coming together to remember her and we would appreciate some privacy and space at this terrible time.”

Amy’s phone was apparently “routinely” hacked by members of the press, as were Winehouse’s parents, brother Alex and ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil, according to investigative journalist Charles Lavery.

Talking about the troubled Londoner’s attendance at rehabilitation centres, a source told Lavery: “The press knew where she would be, who would be there, what time, at any given time.

“They were able to be there too, to befriend her and actively encourage her, as if they had arrived by chance. That made better copy and, more importantly, better photos for the snappers both inside and waiting outside.

Ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil said that losing Winehouse has left him “inconsolable”, while Fielder-Civil’s mother hit out at critics who said he was responsible for the singer’s untimely, saying he had nothing to do with it.

Amy joins the ’27 Club’ – a list of famous rock stars who died at the same age  – which also includes Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Brian Jones.