You correctly report that September 21 is the 77th birthday of Leonard Cohen who on balance, as it happens, is my favourite singer-cum-songwriter-cum-poet-cum-author come what may in (mainly) the English language for 40 years or more.
Unfortunately, though, his artistic genius has not always been matched by his business acumen, resulting in considerable bad luck or, given his well-known sympathy for Zen Buddhism, karma.
The resilience he has displayed in later life and the face of adversity is, whatever one’s views of his talent or lack thereof, admirable.
May I take this opportunity, on behalf of a great number of Oxfordians, to wish him many happy returns –or depressing ones, as he prefers.
DAVID DIMENT, Riverside Court, Oxford
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