The singer David Bowie died as he had lived. He turned his music, his lyrics, his voice, his last illness, above all his appearance, into a single art form. His last album, Blackstar, and particularly its second track, “Lazarus”, was described by its producer as the star’s final message to his millions of fans. It begins: “Look up here, I’m in heaven.” A man who lived ironically died ironically, so it might be stretching things to read a deliberate religious feeling into his words. But neither could it be categorically denied: he had a strong spiritual side. Bowie loved enigma and ambivalence, including the enigma of his own being – the basis of his art – and the ambivalence surrounding his sexuality. It is revealing to put him at the end of