In Praise of Great Journalistic Writing

I subscribe to The Guardian Weekly. It is a weekly digest, 48 pages long, of articles from The Guardian from the previous week, printed on ultra-thin paper to save costs and delivered to your door. Some articles are taken from the sister publication of The Observer, while there are also pieces from Le Monde and The Washington Post.

I recommend it, and I read at least 80% of its articles each week. I have some quibbles. There is not enough sport for my taste. The editorial line is left of centre and that makes it a great balancer for The Economist, but I do wish it shared its ruthless logic, as too often articles bemoan the state of our capitalist world without offering coherent alternatives. Perhaps that will prove to be the modern curse of all liberal dreams, though I’m not ready to accept that it is yet. One consequence is that the paper often overall makes me feel gloomy, whereas The Economist always seems to succeed in being optimistic. In that sense, reading The Guardian Weekly can remind me of listening to an ageing priest’s homily finding fault with all modernity some way of other. My last whinge is the supply chain. Why does it take until Saturday to receive 48 pages of material with a last copy day of the previous Monday, while The Economist can produce 140 pages with a copy day of Thursday to my door, more reliably, on the same day?

The great strengths of The Guardian Weekly, in my opinion, are its truly global focus, the surprising stories in its Review section, and the general quality of writing. The Economist is sharp, precise and accurate, but rarely beautiful (though nerds like me sometimes find their charts beautiful). The Guardian Weekly always produces some articles to make me purr with their use of language alone.

The week before last included a contribution from octogenarian Katherine Whitehorn. She was a regular contributor in the 1980’s to the women’s pages (cruelly dubbed wimmin’s pages by Private Eye and others), alongside the cartoons of Posy Simmons. While I never fully understood some of the more strident women’s themes, The Guardian certainly challenged society in necessary directions in those days.

Whitehorn is always imaginative, human, lucid, but above all she is funny. Judging by this recent article, arguing that we now live so long that the three ages of man ought to be replaced with four, she has lost none of her skill. I liked the idea – that sometime between 45 and 55 we can enter a slower phase of second career, less fuelled by ambition and need for money and more attuned to our true passions, before succumbing to true decline in our 70’s or 80’s. Of course I liked the idea, I am a pioneer for it! But, as always with Whitehorn, it is less about the idea itself than the language she uses to espouse it. Timeless class at work.

You may have to subscribe to find her article, but here are some famous quotes from Whitehorn. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/k/katherine_whitehorn.html
I especially like the observations about taxis, teaching children about money, born again people and recycling laundry.

While I am praising great journalism, here are some other names. Nancy Banks Smith is from the same generation as Whitehorn and has similar brilliant observations of life through her TV review, still going strong in The Guardian (and its Weekly). This year saw the passing of political writer Alan Watkins. One of his mentees was Robert Harris, who moved from commentator to novelist. And when I first used to read the Guardian it was a venerable James Cameron who set the standard.

Recalling these journalists evokes sharp memories in me. Just like a place has a smell, an era in ones life has certain themes, and what one habitually read can be one of them. Events can do the same (where were you when the wall came down or Diana died?), but not too much else can make such an instant connection. With novels and films, I find the exact time blurs in the memory.

And with the many transitions in journalism taking place now, what will be the equivalent for the next generation? I sense there are viewer iconic newspaper writers now, and certainly fewer readers. TV programmes and events will still play a role for sure (The Morecambe and Wise Christmas shows define my early teens as sharply as anything). But what else?