Richard Boston was an English journalist and author, a rigorous dissenter and a belligerent pacifist. An anarchist, toper, raconteur, marathon runner and practical joker, he described his pastimes as "soothsaying, shelling peas and embroidery" and argued that Adam and Eve were the first anarchists: "God gave them only one order and they promptly broke it".
Early life
Richard Boston was born in London and brought up on a Kent farm. He was educated at Stowe School, Regent Street Polytechnic and King's College, Cambridge. During the early 1960s he taught abroad in Sweden, Sicily and Paris. In 1966, towards the end of his period in France he worked as a film extra, acting as a longshot stand-in for Jacques Tati in his film Playtime.
Journalism
For more than 30 years Boston contributed to a range of newspapers, magazines and broadcast programmes. Initially, staff jobs included Peace News, New Society and The Times Literary Supplement, and he became known for an oddball but passionate take on the passing scene. From 1972 Boston was a freelance columnist, features and editorial writer on The Guardian. Soon after starting, Boston, together with Michael McNay, came up the idea of a column about beer. Keg beers such as Watneys Red Barrel and Ind Coope Double Diamond were being pushed on the beer drinker with widespread distribution and high advertising budgets. These bland, sterile and gassy beers provided Aunt Sallies for his regular Saturday column in The Guardian, "Boston on Beer", which started shortly after the launch of the Campaign for Real Ale. Some regular readers might have been disappointed to hear that: "Despite all the talk of real ale, I have to say that, if ever I saw Richard in the village pub, he was usually drinking something stronger." In 1977 he founded the environmentalist magazineVole.
Quotes
By Richard Boston
On his candidature in the 1994 European elections: It's a big trough and I want to get my nose in it.
On Watership Down when re-examining some well known books: The rabbits upheld the public school virtues of getting up early, having cold showers, and going on very long runs.
On Adam and Eve: were the first anarchists, God gave them only one order and they promptly broke it.
By others
John Falcke, the painter: Above everything, I admired his moral courage in standing by his principles in everything he did.
Alan Rusbridger, journalist: Richard Boston was incapable of being serious about anything for very long. His love of literary practical jokes and puns concealed both an acute and erudite mind and a personality given to prolonged periods of melancholy.
Anne Boston: He was a free thinker, a true independent who tenaciously tracked his train of thought into unexpected territory, sometimes surprising himself as much as others.
