"[I]n so many things, from tea-drinking to composing filthy limericks, he remained defiantly English, even after three decades in New York and Washington. Staying at his apartment once, I played "Abide With Me" on the piano – and looked up to see tears rolling down his cheeks. The jokes he most enjoyed depended on a set of references understood by Englishmen of his class and upbringing – hymns ancient and modern, P G Wodehouse, U and non-U, absurd nicknames, Gilbert and Sullivan, sexual incompetence, over-boiled cabbage and rain-sodden holidays in West Wittering."