Who was Jeffrey Bernard?

The late Jeffrey Bernard, who died on September 4, 1997, aged 65, was an English journalist who is probably best remembered for his weekly column ‘Low Life’ in ‘The Spectator’, which he was commissioned to write by editor Alexander Chancellor in 1978. An inveterate, and largely unrepetant, alcoholic, gambler and womaniser for most of his adult life, Bernard was nonetheless a sharp, witty writer.

His exploits became the stuff of legend, not least because of the play ‘Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell’ by Keith Waterhouse, which opened at the Apollo Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue in October, 1989, with Peter O’Toole in the title role. The title of the play refers to the notice that would appear in ‘The Spectator’ – on a blank page, or next to a cartoon – on the numerous occasions when Bernard was too drunk, or too ill, to write his column.

What, I hear you ask, does this have to do with horse racing? Well, on October 3, 1970, Bernard began writing what would become a hugely popular column in the ‘Sporting Life’, in which he shared his thoughts on his favourite topics, including women, drinking, gambling and eccentric Lambourn trainer Doug Marks, with whom he later owned a racehorse. Bernard later said of his column, ‘The punters identified with it because I took the piss out of racing people. They’re terribly self-important.’

His tenure as a ‘Life’ columnist lasted just a year, mainly due to his proclivity for drinking to excess – at least a bottle and a half of vodka every day – but, later in his career, in 1983, he was recruited by Alistair Down, on behalf of the ‘Sporting Life Weekender’, to do a similar job for the fledgling paper. In inimitable style, Bernard once wrote of the bookmaking fraternity, ‘The survival of bookmakers is a matter of deep concern to me and I spend sleepless nights worrying about them. I give them whatever I can, but I’m afraid it isn’t enough. You see, I love bookmakers. I love the way they shout and I love the way they smile when they see me coming.’