Mr Livingstone, 67, said the accolade would have been for services to the Olympics but he did not believe politicians should get honours.

BBC: Former London mayor Ken Livingstone 'turned down CBE'

Such honours cascaded down on Mr Wilson but did not seem to turn his head or quench the anger that smouldered somewhere below the external affability.

ECONOMIST: August Wilson

Mr Mayr did well in America, ending up in the Alexander Agassiz chair of zoology at Harvard, showered with honours, and proving the fitness of his own genes by living for more than a century.

ECONOMIST: Obituary