Losses hit Lebedev, the man of letters

Some years ago, soon after he ploughed £30 million into the Independent titles, Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev proclaimed: ‘I’m taught to be more Marcus Aurelius than Caracalla if you know your Roman history.’ He said even nicer things about his new employees: ‘If we’re lucky to find somebody like Mark Twain, who used to be a reporter, or Ernest Hemingway or Anton Chekhov, then we have something completely new.’

Well, times have changed. There is uproar at Indy Towers, where staff members are reacting to the giant axe that has been taken to the arts and culture pages of the Independent on Sunday. Let’s hope any undiscovered literary giants, lurking on the newsroom floor, are not cut down in the cull.