Andrew Lycett

A good editor and a good man

Was this dynamic and highly principled editor too good to make for an interesting biography? Not on this evidence

Before embarking on this book, Jeremy Lewis was told by his friend Diana Athill that his subject, the newspaper editor and philanthropist David Astor, was too ‘saintly’ for a lively biography. As a publisher, she had worked on an earlier authorised tome, and thought she knew.

Lewis, and Astor, proved more resilient.

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