“I have a rescued parrot. She perfectly encapsulates the misery of a wild animal in the wrong environment, in the wrong climate and with access to the wrong natural resources, I cannot do for her what I have done for captive songbirds in Mediterranean countries – bought them and released them. She is for me the lonely circus elephant in Germany, the caged tiger in Spain, the dancing bear in Turkey, the baited bear in Pakistan – all of which, and many more, are reasons for my patronage of CAPS.”

Since 1984 Brian has been the art critic of the London Evening Standard and one of its political columnists, winning national and international press awards including The George Orwell prize for his political and current affairs column and the Art Critic of the Year Award for his weekly column on Visual Arts. He is a prolific broadcaster across news, arts and documentary programming on both radio and television. Brian also uses his literary talents to highlight the suffering of animals, including the plight of endangered species, the exploitation of farmed animals and his opposition to zoos, vivisection and the fur trade. He raises funds for the rescue and re-homing of abandoned and ill-treated domestic pets. He has developed his London garden as a haven for wildlife.