" a public intellectual and a democratic socialist in the Fabian tradition. One of the great political essayists and reviewers of his generation, he addressed himself to the general reader and the active citizen. A lifelong gadfly, he was forever starting new associations and launching new projects, many of which endured. "
Crick was the first authorized biographer of Orwell and his George Orwell: a Life (1980) was a grand success. In it Crick says Orwell made his name as a journalist by his skill at "rubbing the fur of his own cat backwards." That phrase may well apply to Crick himself with his enthusiasm for public debate and emphasis on active citizenship. As annoying as such people can be in person, the fact is the alternatives are less desirable.
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