"He redefined Britishness as something freedom-loving

When Tom Stoppard visited the refugee camp in Calais once known as the Jungle, where thousands waited to cross the Channel, he was asked by a journalist whether it was possible that Britain's goodwill was being exploited by would-be immigrants and asylum seekers.

- David Hare

Tom replied that such a thing might indeed be a possibility but that, even if it were, this was an argument about which he was happy to be historically on the wrong side. This reply has always seemed to me the most resonant remark made by any public figure in the last 20 years. It is hard to think of anyone else who would approach the question of illegal immigration with such concision and characteristic generosity.

As an immigrant himself from Czechoslovakia, Tom did more than any other playwright or novelist in his own lifetime to redefine Britishness as something freedom-loving and openhearted.