… is our hero

SIR: Wilfred De’ath was an old boy of our school, Queen Elizabeth’s School for Boys in Barnet, north London, and not so many years older than those of us who ran our Sixth Form Society.

Sometimes an august former schoolboy would be invited along by the headmaster to bore us with his exploits. We fancied making our own invitations, and so it was that Wilfred De’ath joined us for an informal evening.

De’ath had been the BBC’S youngest producer at just 23 and was a regular voice on the radio, reporting on the ‘counterculture’ around the world and interviewing the likes of John Lennon.

As he told us spotty boys his tales of romantic travels around the world, he was something of a hero. He was an enthralling and generous companion, as honest with us schoolboys then as he is with your readers now.

All of us wanted his life. Had we known, as he revealed recently in an Oldie piece, that he got sexual

gratification from watching women urinate, we would have wanted his life even more. I read him every month, and he remains an heroic figure. Dr Luke Dixon, London W1