Alexander Chancellor and I have been together a long time; in fact since 1975. I was a student at Durham and a reader of The Spectator, he was the new editor.
The Spectator was at a low ebb in the mid 1970s with fewer than 17,000 readers. Its exclusivity appealed to me and I have been a reader on and off ever since – much more on than off. AC was sacked as editor by a new proprietor, Algy Cluff, in 1984 and for a time our ways parted. He returned as a columnist a few years ago writing the Long Life column. His descriptions of rural life in Northamptonshire are a welcome distraction from the global political hurly-burly in the rest of the magazine.
For a couple of years Alexander, I think I may be so bold after such a long acquaintance, has been editing The Oldie that I had started dipping into under Richard Ingram’s editorship when I was technically much too young. Like The Spectator in the 1970s, The Oldie struggled a bit in its early years gaining the sobriquet in Fleet Street, The Foldie. When Ingrams resigned in 2014 a lot of his columnists left too and Alexander seemed to be in trouble. I gave up reading it and only picked it up again a week ago to take to France on holiday. It is right back on top of its game, both to my surprise and pleasure. Published monthly it spreads itself more than a weekly – the October issue is more than a hundred pages – and covers plenty of ground. Nostalgia, politics, history, book, radio, TV, theatre, music and film reviews, a money column, A Memorial Service column, a host of columnists not all of whom appeal to me. You get the idea? Bird of the Month, the Grey Partridge this month, is a lot more interesting than Tweet of the Day on Radio 4 on the rare occasions that I am awake at 6.00 am. I Once Met is another Oldie classic column. This month Harry Mount describes being given bacon crisps by Harold Acton as an eleven year old in Florence.
I’m going to subscribe and re-cement my ties with Alexander Chancellor.