Bernard Levin, the celebrated author and journalist, died on Saturday after a battle with Alzheimer's disease. He was 75.

Levin's columns appeared in The Times from 1971 to 1997, pieces that were passionate, controversial, courageous and never dull.

Brought up in London by his Lithuanian grandparents, and educated at Christ's Hospital and the London School of Economics, he was a firebrand socialist in his youth.

But at the height of his powers under the editorship of William Rees-Mogg his views came to epitomise The Times.

His early career included six years at The Spectator, and more than a decade as theatre critic of the Daily Express and later the Daily Mail.

After leaving The Times when Mr Rees-Mogg stood down in 1981, Levin famously started his first column when he rejoined the paper a year later with the words: "And another thing."

He never married, despite a succession of beautiful and intelligent girlfriends. In later life he was cared for by his companion of many years, Elizabeth Anderson.

Robert Thomson, Editor of The Times, today paid tribute to the beauty of Levin's language.

He said: "Bernard Levin was one of the most gifted and influential columnists to write for The Times. The beauty of his language and originality of his thought ensured that he had an enthusiastic audience far beyond the borders of Britain."

William Rees-Mogg, now a cross-bench peer, remembers that it was a coup when, as Editor of The Times, he succeeded in poaching Levin from the Daily Mail in 1971.

At the time Levin was expected to accept a counter-offer from The Guardian, a paper that appeared more in tune with his left-wing views. In the end he chose The Times and entered the most productive decade of his writing career, when his views - while still radical - swung towards the centre.

Levin became convinced of the need to curb the power of the print unions, and was interested in a new Conservative politician called Margaret Thatcher.

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