The sad death of Tony Judt has prompted what seems like acres of deserved tribute. But it is to the man’s writing we should go. His slim volume, The Burden of Repsonsibility (University of Chicago Press, 1998), is a brilliant celebration of three anti-Marxist French progressives – Albert Camus, Raymond Aron and Leon Blum – who retained their virtues while others (Sarte, De Beauvoir etc) embraced such delights as Maoism and Stalinism. Essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the 20^th century.

Judt’s understanding of the world was encouraged by the outstanding education system in place in Britain during the 1950s and 1960s, which took many children of humble background, like Judt himself, and placed them in centres of excellence where they blossomed. Its decline is the subject of what is arguably Judt’s finest essay. It is impossible to read and not feel anger and shame at the idiocies of unthinking egalitarianism.