I don’t want to lower the tone of Adrian Tribe’s entertaining series on London’s “Bloomsbury benches”. And I quickly concede that Daffy Duck isn’t even a character from a book. Still, he is a beloved animated cartoon figure from Warner Bros, having appeared throughout the mid 20th c. in various series (especially Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies) as best friend and arch-rival of Bugs Bunny.

Chuck Jones, one of Daffy’s early designers is quoted on Wikipedia as saying that Daffy “expresses all of the things we’re afraid to express.” No longer, I’m sorry to say. Especially in the US where the extreme left/right cleavage means that, on internet blogs and in comment columns, no one is afraid to express anything, and ad hominem argument is the name of the game! Daffy’s favorite retort -the deliciously arrogant (‘you’re des-thpicable’)- today would likely pass as fair comment in place of the reasoned argumentation our schools so vainly try to instil.

As well as I can remember, my favorites from school boy days were Duck Twacy, Duck Amuck and Show Biz Bugs.