Best of NMEs: Nick Kent and Julie Burchill

Ex-New Musical Express writer Nick Kent in his new autobiography Apathy for the Devil says his first impression of Julie Burchill when she joined the magazine was that she was "a strange teenaged girl with a pronounced West Country twang, sullen eyes and a vibe about her that could best be described as 'Myra Hindleyesque'".
Burchill exacted her revenge reviewing Apathy for the Devil in yesterday's Observer: "As Kent was so off his bonce due to various medications of both a street and legal kind that he regularly apologised to the NME office hat stand when he bumped into it during this time, one hardly expects 20/20 recall. However, I did take particular exception to the passage: "I liked the idea of Julie Burchill coming aboard – she certainly knew how to shake things up – but the reality was often hard to stomach, particularly when one found oneself in close physical proximity to the young woman."
"I have many faults, but smelling is not one of them. On the contrary, it was Kent who was the stinker – literally and metaphorically – to the extent that he could single-handedly clear out a crowded lift in the King's Reach Tower where the NME had its offices. This accidental talent, so far as I could see, was surely the only reason that anyone ever sought out his skanky company."