I never knew Larry Lamb himself, but was casually acquainted with the Sun newspaper he is "credited" with having created and made such a "success" of.

Rupert Murdoch, for whom he worked, may describe him as "an inspiration", a man who "helped reinvent popular journalism" and who "towered above the editors of his generation" (Larry Lamb, editor who made Sun into a success, 20 May 2000), but I have a different opinion, and a definition of "success" another than just making money.

I cannot judge the man himself, but what he helped to produce at the Sun was a disgrace to the human spirit, the pinnacle of gutter journalism. It never ceased to amaze me to what depths the Sun was capable of descending.

I hope that before Saint Peter lets Larry Lamb through those pearly gates, he makes him read - no, recite! - every word that was written in that rag of a newspaper while it was in his charge, and to apologise to all those Sun readers whom he must have held in such contempt, while making a fortune out of them.