Harry Conroy: 'no fashion icon'

Author and journalist Francis Beckett (left), who wrote the excellent Guardian obituary of former NUJ general secretary Harry Conroy, has written about Harry's funeral in Glasgow and more about his life in a post My Friend Harry Conroy: not a fashion icon on his new blog.
He writes of the funeral: "I wept for the loss, at only 67, of a man out of his time; a man whose virtues were already seen as a little quaint in the sixties, and look very odd now: loyalty, courage, kindness, rebelliousness, a socialist love for equality between people, an instinct to put others before himself."
Francis also tells a nice story of how when he persuaded him to eat at a French brasserie in London, Harry was frustrated that neither fried egg nor chips would be served with his steak, and didn't want the saute potatoes he was offered instead. He adds: "The proprietor, in a moment of inspiration, told him that saute potatoes were just round chips. So that was all right, and we became regulars at the brasserie on the night before NUJ executive meetings."