I am parliamentary sketch writer for the Daily Mail. Parliamentary sketches are a genre peculiar to British newspapers. They offer subjective accounts of parliamentary debates and other political events. Sketches are verbal cartoons which describe how politicians walk and talk, the words they use, the airs they strike. They are about character rather than policy.
From 2004-2023 I was also a theatre critic but have retired from that treadmill, to widespread relief (including my own). I do occasional guest-pundit slots on television and radio. In the recent past I presented a BBC Radio 4 series, ‘What’s The Point Of…?’ and for a decade wrote about theatre for Waitrose Weekend magazine. My latest non-fiction book, ‘Stop Bloody Bossing Me About’, was published during the covid lockdown. It seemed to have no effect at all on our politicians. April 2025 saw publication of my second novel, ‘Nunc!’ It is about the Prophet Simeon in 1st century BC Jerusalem, imagining his world, his friends, his sorrows – and how he gives hope to a cancer victim in 21st century Britain. Simeon was the old man at the temple who accepted his death willingly after encountering the infant Christ. I thought of him after my dear brother Alexander, who had terminal cancer, held his baby grandson Ludo in his arms. The pride in Alexander’s eyes that day made me suspect that Simeon’s canticle, the Nunc Dimittis, retains great relevance. ‘Nunc!’ is dedicated to both Alexander and my sister Penny, who died of cancer in 2017. The book also salutes the memory and moustaches of Giovanni Guareschi, whose ‘Don Camillo’ stories were an inspiration.
I was born in 1963 in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, not quite in a February snowdrift. My parents ran a prep school and I was named Quentin because I was their fifth child. Only two of us survive, alas. My father, tall and slender, was a fine cricketer with a crablike spin-bowling action. He taught classics and knew chunks of The Aeneid by heart. I have inherited few of his talents but my brilliant sister Melinda teaches Latin and Greek at Oxford university. My mother’s family were Irish-Canadian – County Cavan by way of Montreal. One forebear briefly ran the George V hotel in Paris while another was a controversial Cavan farmer and Orangeman, RH Johnstone. My mother’s grandfather, John George Adami was a prominent Victorian and Edwardian pathologist who became vice-chancellor of Liverpool University. My own grandfathers went to war: CFC Letts (d 1962) was a Rifle Brigade officer wounded thrice on the Western front, once when a German bullet whizzed through his neck; GDS Adami was a Sapper who landed in Normandy just before D-Day to clear mines and pay compensation to French farmers. His accoutrements that day included a bottle of Champagne and his Sealyham terrier. He died in 1949 and is buried at Corse, Glos, in a graveyard surrounded by orchards.
My schooling was at The Elms, Colwall, and Haileybury. In my late teens I spent time at Bellarmine College, Kentucky. Returning to England I worked in Oxford as a barman, dustman, warehouseman and Father Christmas, among other things. From 1982-86 I drank Guinness, acted in plays and edited magazines at Trinity College, Dublin, while officially reading Medieval English and Classical Civilisation. This was followed by a diploma in Classical Archaeology at Jesus College, Cambridge – the best part of that year was appearing in the Footlights pantomime. I was once a door-to-door salesman in San Jose, California.
Max Hastings offered me a holiday-relief shift on the diary column of The Daily Telegraph in August 1986, when Fleet Street was still hot-metal and dissolute. I worked briefly for a magazine company in Cardiff, producing ‘Fiat World’ and ‘Peugeot Talbot News’ before rejoining the Telegraph in 1988, becoming City diarist. I was the paper’s temporary Commons sketch writer when Mrs Thatcher was toppled. Don’t blame me, though some do.
I edited the ‘Peterborough’ column for five years before moving to New York for The Times, 1995-97. Since May 1 1997, the day Tony Blair won power, I have been back at Westminster sketching for the Telegraph, Mail, Times and now back at the Mail.
When not in London I live in Herefordshire. My wife Lois, a former Times obituarist, is a church organist and we have three fine children who are all now making their way in the world. We hope one day to retire to a medieval house near Hereford cathedral but Lois’s restoration of the house is taking an age. Cash-flow problems!
The length of this biog will look big-headed but I offer it as balance to any rubbish you might read about me on the internet.
Where to Buy
For all books sales please
contact Rossiter Books: