Londoner's Diary: Tributes to Spectator and Oldie editor Alexander Chancellor

Ray tang / Rex images
30 January 2017

Legendary Spectator and Oldie editor Alexander Chancellor, who died on Saturday aged 77, proposed himself as Trump’s assassin in a last, characteristic blast against all that was wrong in the world. Oldie publisher James Pembroke reported his proposition in a letter to Oldie contributors and noted: “He would have been far more successful than The Jackal, charming his way past security guards, who would have been disarmed by his beautiful manners, engaging smile and Muttley-like laugh.”

Chancellor was every journalist’s dream editor, assembling excellent writers and letting them get on with it. Graham Greene described him as “the best editor I have ever worked for”, and Charles Moore called him “world-class”.

The Spectator was in free- fall when Chancellor took over as editor in 1975. An ex-Reuters correspondent, he knew nothing about editing print but his mischievous personality transformed the failing title from busted flush to a funny, cynical must-read, notably pairing Taki’s High Life jet-set antics with Jeffrey Bernard’s Low Life chronicle of vodka-soaked Soho despair.

Chancellor’s final Long Life column — on Trump —was in last week’s Spectator.

For all of today's diary click here.

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