John Kerry's uncle dies

A journalist, and an eccentric in the best British tradition, though an American, Forbes did not easily take criticism.

[L]iterary editors tended to take the view that it was easier to print Forbes verbatim than to remonstrate with him.

This policy occasionally landed The Spectator in a libel action [] This obituary will be one of the few published pieces about him which will not be followed by one of his instant ripostes. []
In his work as a reviewer, Forbes would occasionally offer praise. He tended to reserve his admiration for obscure minor masterpieces emanating from Middle Europe, while the more obviously commercial endeavours of successful writers were as a red rag to his bull. He left many an author seething, muttering threats of revenge through clenched teeth.

He enjoyed sexual innuendo, and teased the late Michael Wishart for describing Ali Khan as a great lover, pointing out that Khan's idea of sex reminded him of Father Christmas: "He came but once a year," and adding that any girl "not in a multi-orgasmic mood" would end up feeling "like Michelangelo after a hard day's work on the Sistine Chapel ceiling". Wishart was furious.

Of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll's memoirs, Forbes ventured: "Her father may have been able to give her some beautiful earrings, but nothing to put between them."

A long-term tax exile in Switzerland, Forbes would telephone The Daily Telegraph's obituaries desk after lunch with an anecdote about a subject who had appeared on that morning's page. Periodically, he would remove from his retreat at Château d'Oex to London, where he would immediately take centre stage. []


Alastair Cameron Forbes was born in Surrey on May 2 1918, and held a British passport although he sprang from an American family. He was the third son (in a family of 11) of James Grant Forbes, who had been born in China. The Forbeses were cousins of the Roosevelts, and one of Alastair's sisters was to become the mother of Senator John Kerry.

[]
He was often invited to Chequers, where he observed Roosevelt's special envoy, Averell Harriman, making his way to Pamela Churchill's room; Forbes was prompted to remark: "Hey ho, he's taking his presidential envoy duties very seriously!", and it became one of his favourite anecdotes.

In the 1945 General Election he stood for Parliament as a Liberal, against strong opposition, at Hendon South... coming an honourable third to the Conservative, Lt-Col Sir Hugh Lucas-Tooth, Bt.... The contradiction in Forbes's character is illustrated by the fact that, while standing for the Liberal Party, he actually voted Labour.

Forbes listed his recreations as reading (he devoured a number of newspapers each day and not only the British ones), conversation and "walking and cross-country skiing". He was a long-standing member of White's, though not by any means its most welcome or respected one, and of the Beefsteak.

[Fprbes was] guardian of many secrets - often about matters of paternity - which were sometimes shared with other interested parties: "Ah," he could be heard booming as he arrived at a society wedding, "how nice to see the biological uncle of the bride here today!"

Forbes was a handsome man and enjoyed a number of love affairs, boasting that, thanks to his ministrations, at least one of the Queen's maids of honour at the Coronation was not a maid in the accepted sense of the word. He was frequently dismissed from lunch tables, and viewed the early train home on a Sunday morning after upsetting his hostess as an occupational hazard.

He sounds like a lot more fun than his nephew.