The life and times of "Private Eye", 1961-1971;

by Richard Ingrams

When the first issue of Private Eye was published in 1961, not many people thought it would last more than a few months. This 1971 biography of the periodical describes how the magazine came into being with Richard Ingrams portraying the unlikely editorial collaboration of himself, William Rushton, Christopher Booker, Paul Foot, Peter Cook, Claud Cockburn and many other pseuds of Greek Street. The selections include cartoons, the Colour Section, Lunchtime O'Booze, Glenda Slag, Knacker of the Yard, Baillie Vass, The Last Days of Macmillian, Mrs. Wilson's Diary, the Profumo Affair, the Hal Woolf story, Barry McKenzie, Grocer Heath, and news that no other British newspaper would print. This is the story of how it became England's most sued magazine defying boycotts by advertisers and big distributors with enviable agility and wit.

288 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1971

About the author

Ingrams served his National Service as a Private in the Royal Army Service Corps, but failed to gain a commission and joined the satirical publication Private Eye in 1962. In the same year Ingrams married Mary Morgan.

The following year Richard Ingrams became editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye - a post he retained until 1986.

He is now editor of The Oldie magazine.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't liked most of the early PE anthologies I've seen, but it turns out they weren't giving the whole picture. The magazine was amateurish at the start, but in this massive collection of articles and cartoons you can see the point at which it grew up.

First comes an introduction by Richard Ingrams, who ran the place from the '60s through the '80s, recounting Private Eye's first, faltering steps. (He recalls that early on, a lawyer friend was asked "to cast his eye over the paper before it went to press, but as the man said that every single article was libellous, it was felt that we should dispense with his services.") Then it's on to the sort of rambling, labored humor pieces you'd expect from recent college grads, mocking politicians and the first stirrings of Swinging London.

But suddenly there's a piece of investigative reporting -- Claud Cockburn exposing a London painter's mysterious death, apparently at the hands of the police and possibly connected to the Profumo scandal. And then, a couple of years later, a humor piece that would fit right in today, drawing on the troubles of PM Harold Wilson and con man Emil Savundra, whose insurance company, promising low premiums and computer technology, had just collapsed and left 400,000 Brits without car insurance. "Dr. Harold Wilsundra" is reported to have fled the country after

"the collapse of the firm 'New Britain Ltd.,' of which he was Managing Director. ... In exchange for their votes millions of people were offered fantastic benefits. The company's prospectus contained references in glowing prose to increased wages, great new technological advances, 'the white heat of scientific revolution,' and other high-sounding claims. It is now realised that all such promises were nothing but a gigantic fraud perpetuated by an extremely plausible entrepreneur with but little understanding of money matters."

From that point on, it's recognizably the modern Private Eye. There are early installments of Pseuds Corner, "Mrs. Wilson's Diary," jabs at Robert Maxwell and a fresh-off-the-boat Rupert Murdoch, plus serious stories about the Nigerian civil war, the Krays and a favorite target in those days, Dr. Christiaan Barnard of heart-transplant fame, who in PE's view was doing his patients more harm than good while reveling in international celebrity. At the very end of the book come items from new contributor Auberon Waugh, as hilarious at the start as he was for years afterward.

A rare treat for the Private Eye fan with plenty of free time.

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating review of the history of Private Eye and the politics and politicians it satirised. Since I am old enough to remember most of them it is an exercise in sheer nostalgia.