Sitting on a panel of british writers at a conference in berlin last year I was embarrassed when one of my colleagues , a man known for his fierce left-wing satires of presumptuous public figures , said that the british could feel proud of producing a literature of such quality that all the world wished to read it .
Indeed his major satires [ tale in a tub and gulliver 's travels ] were the incidental by products of his life as a churchman , political journalist and wit .
Accordingly he wrote many satires on what he saw as the abuse of power by society 's elite , inevitably bringing himself into conflict with this elite once again .