Quentin Letts

Quentin Richard Stephen Letts (born 6 February 1963) is a British journalist, writing for "The Daily Telegraph", "Daily Mail", "Mail on Sunday", and "New Statesman", and previously for "The Times".

Early life

He is the son of Richard Letts and Jocelyn Elizabeth Letts (née Adami). His older sister, Melinda, is a successful accredited executive coach who was awarded an OBE in 2003. He was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College, Bellarmine College, Kentucky (now Bellarmine University), Trinity College, Dublin where he edited a number of publications, including the satirical "Piranha", and studied Medieval and Renaissance Literature (1982-86), and Jesus College, Cambridge, taking a Diploma in Classical Archaeology.

Career

Letts has written for a number of British newspapers since beginning his journalistic career in 1987. His first post was with the Peterborough gossip column in the "Daily Telegraph". He is the person behind the "Daily Mail"'s Clement Crabbe column and is also the paper's theatre critic and political sketchwriter. He lists his recreations, in "Who's Who", as "gossip" and "character defenestration". A regular victim of the latter trait is the Speaker of the British House of Commons Michael Martin whom he famously nicknamed "Gorbals Mick", a reference to the Gorbals area of Glasgow, despite the fact that Michael Martin does not come from the Gorbals. Letts is particularly right wing in his views and in a list of 50 people who ruined Britain he castigated the instigator of comprehensive schooling, Tony Blair, Princess Diana and John NcEnroe amonst others

Personal

He married Lois Rathbone in 1996. The couple have a son and two daughters and live in Herefordshire.