Not an angel, I suspect, but a devil of a good writer.... Keith Knight on David Ashforth and his horseracing book

'The reader will always learn something new, fascinating or downright unnecessary by reading a David Ashforth book. ‘Curiosities’ is no different'. 

John McCririck, apparently, said of David Ashforth. ‘The outstanding racing journalist of our generation’. Arguable, I think even Mr.Ashforth will agree. Jilly Cooper placed her praise of Mr.Ashforth in the heavenly realm. ‘David Ashforth writes like an angel’. This is definitely debatable as not one of us, even the divine Jilly, can be certain if angels possess any grasp of punctuation, spelling or syntax. It is possible angels are actually experts on the preservation of feathers whilst being completely illiterate. Robin Oakley, I think, defined Mr.Ashforth with greater accuracy. He also names a racehorse in his praise of his colleague and, no doubt, friend, which Mr.Ashworth would admire. ‘An indefatigable researcher as well as the wittiest man writing about racing.’

http://horseracingmatters.com/blog/not-an-angel-i-suspect-but-the-devil-of-a-good-writer