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| Former Bolshevik Bastard Hitchens in a momentary lapse of decorum |
By our Arts Correspondent: C. Mingles
A rare picture of Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens laughing is set to go on sale at Sotheby’s.
The extraordinary moment was captured by amateur photographer TonyBartley(22) who had been in the audience at a recent Question time appearance by the Bishop bothering journalist.
“I knew I was on to something special when it happened”.
Said the elated snapper on the phone to Satire art correspondent Cholmondley Mingles this morning.
“Every photographer dreams of capturing that special moment in time, and creating something Iconic. I just knew instinctively after a woman in the audience agreed with him ' heartily ' about grammar schools, that the notorious Jeremiah was about to break character and show us his pearlies. A truly remarkable incident now captured on film for posterity. A good thing too as no-one would have believed it otherwise. "
Not quite as “remarkable” as it could have been however according to Sotheby’s photo specialist Lisette Asquith. She told The Satire...
“ At first we thought the photograph was a lot rarer as it was initially reported that he wasn’t chuntering on about grammar schools at the time of capture. I was initially sceptical about that, and my reservations turned out to be correct. A great shame as it could have fetched a much higher price at auction. Only last year a photograph of John Pilger grinning inanely and not banging on about East Timor sold to a collector in New York for $750,000. We rather hoped this one of Mr. Hitchens would have broke the Million mark. Bollocks!”
A spokesman for Mr. Hitchens said...
"Peter is doing penance at the moment by kneeling on broken glass and flagellating himself with an old copy of The Guardian. So he can't talk. But he wishes it known that he is thoroughly ashamed of what he calls a "shameful and unforgivable display of un-Britishness and lack of dignified reserve. "
Original reports claimed that he'd been laughing at a, what turned out to be fake, news item that Russel Brand had died tragically in an horrific hairdressing accident. Though Ironically and disappointingly those turned out to be pish as well.
Peter Hitchens is younger than you expect him to be.
