What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? (Just to give you an idea, Proust's reply was 'To be separated from Mama.') I think that the lowest depth of misery ought to be distinguished from the highest pitch of anguish. In the lower depths come enforced idleness, sexual boredom, and/or impotence. At the highest pitch, the death of a friend or even the fear of the death of a child.

In November 2010 Hitchens cancelled a scheduled appearance in New York where he was to debate writers David Hazony and Stephen Prothero on the subject of the Ten Commandments. He also criticised Bush's support of intelligent design and capital punishment. He will tell it really well.

His anti-religion polemic God Is Not Great sold over 500000 copies. Hitchens died on 15 December 2011 from complications arising from oesophageal cancer a disease that he acknowledged was likely due to his lifelong predilection for heavy smoking and drinking.