Remembering Anthony Lester

And how Lord Lester wanted to be remembered

Lord Lester of Herne Hill QC died of heart disease in August 2020, aged 84. Eighteen months later, his family were at last able to celebrate his life at an evening of words and music in Lincoln’s Inn last week.

It was an entirely secular memorial: Anthony Lester claimed to be a “Jewish atheist with only a rudimentary knowledge of Jewish law, faith or observance”. But, as his son Gideon writes, “his Jewishness and the deeply rooted, only sometimes dormant, antisemitism of Britain became twin poles of his identity”.

The event also served as the launch of Lester’s posthumous memoir, Talking to Myself. According to his son, he chose that title because he thought nobody could possibly want to hear what he had to say. Far from it: this is a frank and revealing account of his life, full of unexpected insights into the legal developments he helped shape — above all, the Human Rights Act 1998. Lester was never shy about expressing his views but he knew he would not live long enough to read any responses to this final self-assessment.

The two most personal passages deal with his appointment to, and resignation from, the House of Lords.