Brian Vine, who died on September 15 aged 74, was one of the great characters of the old Fleet Street, during the days when journalists enjoyed fat expense accounts and often spent as much time propping up the bar at El Vino as polishing their copy.
A rotund, Wodehousian figure with a booming voice and rubicund complexion, "Vino", as Vine was known to his colleagues, wore Savile Row suits, sported a monocle ("for opthalmic reasons", though the glass was obviously plain) and conveyed the general impression of being an escapee from the dustier benches of the Upper House, an image which may have persuaded the late Earl Spencer and his wife, Raine, to unburden themselves, during a flight to Nice, of the difficulties they were having with the Earl's teenage daughter, Lady Diana Spencer.
Daily Telegraph 9/23/2006
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