Nicholas Luard

Nicholas Lamert Luard (26 June 1937 – 25 May 2004) was a British writer and politician.

Background

Nicholas Lamert Luard was born on 26 June 1937 in Hampstead, London.

Luard was educated at Winchester College and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he read English and was taught by F. R. Leavis. He met Peter Cook through Footlights. A very short academic career was replaced by club management on the strength of a legacy. He co-founded The Establishment club in the early 1960s with Peter Cook. He then went into writing. He was one of the Lords Gnome of Private Eye.

With Chris Brasher, Nigel Hawkins and Denis Mollison, he founded the John Muir Trust in 1983. Hawkins served as chairman from 1991 to 1997.

Luard stood as a candidate for the Referendum Party in the 1997 general election, against Michael Portillo in Enfield Southgate.

Luard married Elisabeth Longmore, the food writer, in 1962.

He died on 25 May 2004 in Kensington, London.