Max Hastings was in fine form last night when giving the James Cameron memorial lecture at City University.
He talked for around 40 minutes about his experiences as a war correspondent in the Falklands, Vietnam and the Middle East, as well as his time editing The Daily Telegraph and Evening Standard.
But the question on the lips of one audience member afterwards was this: “Does he dye his hair?”
Certainly his gleaming chestnut barnet made quite a contrast to the white-haired mops and balding pates of most people present.
A quick flick through the Encyclopaedia of the British Press reveals Hastings was born on December 28 1945. So that’s a healthy head of dark hair for a man in his 60s.
Axegrinder feels sure the answer to the mystery lies not in a bottle of hair dye but in the clear benefits of a lifetime’s devotion to manly country pursuits.
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