To Be a Phoney

Following the publication in 2012 of his autobiography, Reporting a Life, Don Hatwell, now 87, has chosen for this miscellany pieces from his letters, diaries and newspaper articles. They range between music, money, theatre, Paul Cézanne, Francis Bacon, a visit to Prague, cigarettes, Sir Thomas Beecham, gout, and the death of his wife Joyce.

“As the London editor of a big provincial I had a gorgeously wide remit, from high politics to low comedy, from thoughtful leaders to quick news stories, theatres, music, art, travel. I have never consciously aimed at achieving a ‘style’. Samuel Butler said he never knew a writer who took the smallest pains with his style and was at the same time readable. My material has taken different shapes. The newspaper stuff was usually written fast for an evening paper with narrow columns and, usually, short sentences. For bigger efforts – letters, diaries, think-pieces – there was more time and space, and I beavered at clarity, immediacy, good length, lightness in thick woods. “Le style est l’homme même,” said Leclerc de Buffon.”

There are interviews with Maggie Smith, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Judith Kranz and Art Blakey. Also included are comments on the politics of Margaret Thatcher, Nigel Lawson, Jim Callaghan and Rupert Murdoch.

“I felt that there is some good stuff that needs to be preserved,” says author Don, whose idols include the great diarist and critic James Agate, and ‘Cassandra’ of the Daily Mirror in its greater days.