The many fans of Stephen Glover will treasure today’s column in the Independent. He starts with a long nostalgic look at the old days as a leader writer on the Daily Telegraph:
” … There were at least 10 writers, and none was required to show up until 3.45pm, when the editorial conference took place.
Even then, the chances were that you would not be asked to write a leader. One leader writer went six months without putting pen to paper.1 … “
Then he goes on to the future:
“The hot news is that the Guardian is expected to re-launch in its Berliner format on Monday 12 or Tuesday 13 September. This is a couple of weeks earlier than most people had expected, I fluctuate between thinking it will be a great success or a damp squib. Or might it be neither?”
Who can doubt he will be proved right?
1 One might suspect this last phrase was pure laziness, since journalists type; but I’m not sure that all the Telegraph intellectuals did use typewriters even in the early Eighties. Peter Utley dictated, but he was blind. Others might have used fountain pens, as Michael Wharton certainly did, and still does.
Wonderful. I instigated, run and write most of our daily leaders and I intend to adopt this strategy as soon as possible.
R