I’m an Oldie

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Alexander Chancellor

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.

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I’m going to subscribe and re-cement my ties with Alexander Chancellor.