The most offending soul alive - Judith M Heimann

Tom Harrisson is generally remembered for founding Mass-Observation, the pioneering social survey organisation that documented the daily lives of ordinary British people - most famously of Londoners during the Blitz - and effectively invented modern market research.;But this was just one of a range of achievements. He effectively invented modern birdwatching. In his 20s he did groundbreaking anthropological research amongst cannibal tribes in Borneo. He was a hugely distinguished wartime soldier with the SOE, parachuting into Java and Sumatra to lead local guerillas against the Japanese, while incidentally finding time to climb a hitherto unconquered mountain. He made documentaries for the BBC, was a regular radio pundit, an authority on erotic art and on the conservation of the organ-utan, wrote books, and when he was killed in a car crash in Thailand was still only 66. He was also, whether as lover, friend or colleague, one of the most feckless and outrageous individuals ever.