David Astor - Hardcover
A New Statesman Book of the Year
Few newspaper editors are remembered beyond their lifetimes, but David Astor of the Observer is a great exception to the rule. He converted a staid, Conservative-supporting Sunday paper into essential reading, admired and envied for the quality of its writers and for its trenchant but fair-minded views.
Astor grew up at Cliveden, the country house on the Thames which his grandfather had bought when he turned his back on New York, the source of the family fortune. His liberal-minded father was a constant support, but his relations with his mother, Nancy, were always embattled. At Oxford he suffered the first of the bouts of depression that were to blight his life; a lost soul for much of the Thirties, he became involved in attempts to put the British Government in touch with the German opposition in the months leading up to the war.
George Orwell had urged Astor to champion the decolonisation of Africa, and Nelson Mandela always acknowledged how much he owed to the Observer’s long-standing support. A generous benefactor to good causes, he helped to set up Amnesty International and Index on Censorship. A good man and a great editor, he deserves to be better remembered.
Few newspaper editors are remembered beyond their lifetimes, but David Astor of the Observer is a great exception to the rule. He converted a staid, Conservative-supporting Sunday paper into essential reading, admired and envied for the quality of its writers and for its trenchant but fair-minded views.
Astor grew up at Cliveden, the country house on the Thames which his grandfather had bought when he turned his back on New York, the source of the family fortune. His liberal-minded father was a constant support, but his relations with his mother, Nancy, were always embattled. At Oxford he suffered the first of the bouts of depression that were to blight his life; a lost soul for much of the Thirties, he became involved in attempts to put the British Government in touch with the German opposition in the months leading up to the war.
George Orwell had urged Astor to champion the decolonisation of Africa, and Nelson Mandela always acknowledged how much he owed to the Observer’s long-standing support. A generous benefactor to good causes, he helped to set up Amnesty International and Index on Censorship. A good man and a great editor, he deserves to be better remembered.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
"Jeremy Lewis has written a definitive account of Astor and his world." (Robert McCrum Observer)
"Lewis’s affectionate and endearing biography is also a nostalgic celebration of the liberal intelligentsia and metropolitan elite...from the 1940s to the 1970s. There are many rewards in this book, which is full of old Fleet Street gossip, big names and good jokes." (Richard Davenport-Hines The Times)
"Jeremy Lewis’s excellent new biography brings out both sides of this complex figure, tracing the contradictions of his character to his privileged but painfully conflicted upbringing... He gives a marvellous description of the golden age of the Observer." (John Campbell Financial Times)
"A fascinating, well-written and brilliantly researched account.... The book is a great achievement." (Piers Brendon)
"Excellent new biography." (Richard Astor Observer)
Book Description:
"Lewis’s affectionate and endearing biography is also a nostalgic celebration of the liberal intelligentsia and metropolitan elite...from the 1940s to the 1970s. There are many rewards in this book, which is full of old Fleet Street gossip, big names and good jokes." (Richard Davenport-Hines The Times)
"Jeremy Lewis’s excellent new biography brings out both sides of this complex figure, tracing the contradictions of his character to his privileged but painfully conflicted upbringing... He gives a marvellous description of the golden age of the Observer." (John Campbell Financial Times)
"A fascinating, well-written and brilliantly researched account.... The book is a great achievement." (Piers Brendon)
"Excellent new biography." (Richard Astor Observer)
A New Statesman Book of the Year
An exceptional biography of that rarest of creatures – a really good man
An exceptional biography of that rarest of creatures – a really good man
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherJonathan Cape
- Publication date2016
- ISBN 10 0224090909
- ISBN 13 9780224090902
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages432
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David Astor
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ISBN 10: 0224090909
ISBN 13: 9780224090902
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