Levin, Bernard. "A man burnt to his soul's bones", The Times, 25 January 1972, p. 14, "Music's sublime summit", The Times, 21 December 1987, and "Here at last, Strauss fit for the squeamish", The Times, 2 February 1985, p. 6

Although he never married, he had a number of relationships, including a noted liaison in the 1970s with the author and heiress, Arianna Stassinopoulous, who as Arianna Huffington is now a US Republican politician. Although Levin had rejected Judaism when a youth, he quested after spirituality. Such religious sympathies as he had, he said, were "with quietist faiths, like Buddhism, on the one hand, and with a straightforward message of salvation, like Christianity, on the other". [11] With the help of Stassinopoulos he continued to search after spiritual truth. She later wrote, "He tried therapy, he tried Insight, a self-awareness seminar that I had helped to bring to London, he tried a stint in an ashram in India. Lesser souls would have avoided the ridicule that was heaped on him for his spiritual 'search' by simply keeping it to himself. But he didn't, because anything he was touched by he had to write about". [51] In 1980 he wrote extensive accounts in his column about his visit to the Indian commune of the meditation teacher Osho. [12] Lord Longford is too fascinated with himself to realise that a woman twisted enough to derive sexual pleasure from torturing a child to death might be capable of duping him into the belief that she has repented. But Levin has set himself up as somebody who is hard to gull. He has no excuse for ignoring the considerable range of reasonable opinion that would prefer it if Myra Hindley were not turned loose, even with Lord Longford’s personal guarantee of her future good conduct. Bernard's first piece for Truth dealt with his disillusionment with the Labour party. Soon he, Oakes and Alan Brien were all sharing an office. It was a tempestuous room. Alan was forever arguing some involved point; Bernard, always capable of doing two things at once, would be contesting the point while correcting proofs. Philip, more likely than not would be laughing at them, while pondering on a poem he was writing.Prolific, controversial, passionate, versatile, maddening, enthusiastic, sometimes irresponsible, always courageous, he was recognised instantly in the street by people of all ages. He definitely influenced me in terms of my passion for journalism. But the main reason for the Huffington Post was something else. I've always loved the art of bringing interesting people together, known and unknown, mixing it up. Getting all these voices from real life and moving them online was at the heart of HuffPo. Levin's style was noted for its long sentences with copious sub-clauses and regular use of semi-colons - he once managed a 1,500-word sentence. But the media organisation with which he became most closely identified was the Times, particularly under the editorship of William Rees-Mogg in the 1970s.

Henry Bernard Levin CBE (19 August 1928 – 7 August 2004) was an English journalist, author and broadcaster, described by The Times as "the most famous journalist of his day". The son of a poor Jewish family in London, he won a scholarship to the independent school Christ's Hospital and went on to the London School of Economics, graduating in 1952. After a short spell in a lowly job at the BBC selecting press cuttings for use in programmes, he secured a post as a junior member of the editorial staff of a weekly periodical, Truth, in 1953.

More episodes

If you cannot understand my argument, and declare 'It's Greek to me', you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger, if your wish is father to the thought, if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare". [n 14] Arianna Stassinopoulos (Huffington) [ edit ] In later years, Liz Anderson (Elisabeth Anderson) was Bernard Levin's partner. Like Arianna Stassinopoulos, she was also Levin's junior by more than 20 years. [54] 1980s [ edit ]