Peter Hitchens and Simone Weil

Are these two intellectual figures closely related? Perhaps. They both take Christianity seriously. They both flirted with Communist politics. They both try to live a life of a common person. (Hitchens is very much alive. Weil is dead. I should say.)

They both have famous brothers. And whenever they are introduced to audiences that are assumed to not know them, their having these famous brothers is always mentioned. In the case of Peter Hitchens, it is always mentioned that his brother was Christopher Hitchens, the famous Atheist and Polemicist; for Weil, that her brother Andre Weil was a very famous mathematician.

For me though, I always forget about their famous brothers until I come upon these introductions. Christopher Hitchens has died and I suspect that in a few years, he will be forgotten. He never wrote a classic piece. Andre Weil to me is only known because of his sister. Otherwise, I would never have heard of him.