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", but I have a different opinion, and a definition of "success" other 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 what depths the Sun was capable of plumbing.

 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 apologise to all those Sun readers whom he must have held in such contempt, while making a fortune out of them.