Mark Amory

Mark Amory’s diary: Confessions of a literary editor

Most editors had at least one person they couldn't bear, and one banned poems

[Getty Images/iStock] 
issue 20 September 2014

Until recently I used to claim that I had been literary editor of The Spectator for over 25 years; now I say almost 30. The trouble is I am not quite sure and it is curiously difficult to find out. Dot Wordsworth arrived on the same day as me but she cannot remember either. Each of us assumed that the other was an established figure and so our superior. A similar imprecision may undermine other memories.

In the early Eighties then, when Alexander Chancellor had reinvented the magazine after a bad patch, and it seemed daring, anarchic and slightly amateurish, I wrote theatre reviews and one late afternoon went round to Doughty Street, where The Spectator then was. I could find no one sober in the building. How did it manage to come out so promptly each week? Charles Moore, the next editor, aged a mere 27, brought a certain coherence. Though Thursday lunches were still jolly and full of incident — Kingsley Amis never really got used to having his stories interrupted by Jennifer Paterson, the cook, and used to wave a fork in the air to convey that he still had the floor — sometimes cabinet ministers would attend and be asked serious questions. Margaret Thatcher came to the summer party. There was, however, a stretch when Moore had to be away and perhaps Dominic Lawson had not yet arrived, so there was no one to edit. For three weeks the editor’s secretary and the literary editor were put in control. Luckily Julia Mount was the editor’s secretary. The first week was fine — enough had been commissioned already to see us through. In the third week, help was going to return soon enough to stave off disaster. The second week presented problems.

GIF Image

Disagree with half of it, enjoy reading all of it

TRY 3 MONTHS FOR $5
Our magazine articles are for subscribers only. Start your 3-month trial today for just $5 and subscribe to more than one view

Comments

Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.

Already a subscriber? Log in