STEPHEN BAYLEY

This month my subject is Will Self, the novelist, tireless provocateur, cyclist and successful irritant of conventional liberal causes. He is also funny. We are not close friends, but are neighbours and like each other well enough. Certainly, if we must have ‘public intellectuals’, Will would be my choice.

We collided recently on a Speed Awareness Course. I had been doing a sedate 26mph in what I (mis-) understood to be a 30 zone. Will’s offence was unclear,