George Melly

From Philosopedia

Melly, George (17 August 1926 - 5 July 2007)

Born in Liverpool and educated at Stowe School, Alan George Heywood Melly became a film and television critic for The Observer, a lecturer about surrealism, a writer, an anarchist, and a jazz and blues singer.

For New Humanist (London, July 1993), Melly wrote about his outlook:

I came from a middle-class Liverpool family and was born in 1926. My mother was Jewish by birth, but had converted to the Church of England at the age of fourteen shortly after her Orthodox father had died. My father was of Unitarian stock. I was sent to what was called The Children’s Service at the local Church; a middle-class affair—working-class children attended Sunday School in the afternoon—and then when I reached a suitable age, attended normal services and was eventually confirmed at the age of fourteen or so. My mother believed vaguely in an after-life. My father, as I discovered later, just paid the minimum lip-service to religion and went to church only on Christmas Day.

When I was about sixteen I discovered Surrealism and with its adamant atheism and my “conversion” followed. I have never seen any reason to deviate and it is now fifty years later. It seems to me that religion of whatever complexion has been responsible for more misery and violence in the course of history than any other factor, and among religions I include a faith in extreme nationalism or any rigid system.

I view my death with no qualms. I shall not hesitate to take Pascal’s wager. Our only contribution, or so I believe, to the world is through our genes. I find it a mixture of panic, self-importance, and superstition to insist on personal survival. I’ve had a very full and interesting life, adore both nature and art, have been blessed with many friends, have laughed a great deal and wept mercifully little. At no time have I felt even the least temptation to lift my hat to any form of unseen power.

In 1970 Melly wrote Revolt Into Style: The Pop Arts in Britain. He also wrote an autobiography, Scouse Mouse, Or, I Never Got Over It, as well as Paris and the Surrealists (1991) and Slowing Down (2005).

In 1986, Melly was elected an honorary associate of the British Rationalist Press Association. He also was an honorary associate of the National Secular Society and a Vice President of the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA).

Melly, who admitted to being "an ex-gay" when he agreed to become a GALHA vice-president, died of lung cancer at the age of 80 at his London home.

(See entry for Humanist Ceremonies.)