the colour mag to operate with virtual autonomy.” There may have been complaints about the


magazine’s generous spending policy but Lacey retorts: “I’d be defensive about expenses. The essence of finding material was to be out and about.”


The most extreme example of out-and-about


was when Godders took the staff on an outing to the former Yugoslavia for a feature on A Day in the Life of Sarajevo. Not a word was published. “The pictures weren’t very good,” explains art director Michael Rand and, if the art director didn’t like it, it didn’t go in. What did go in was the work of brilliant photographers. Lord Snowdon would drop in with his classic portraits. Also in the stable of sensational snappers was Don McCullin, whose early photo feature on the Vietnam war had a tremendous impact.


Photographs could be used with jocular effect, as in Boxer’s crime issue, his last. “There was an extraordinary cover of the Duke of Bedford in a stocking mask and a caption inside asking readers if they could recognise who it was,” marvels former deputy editor Peter Crookston. Inside was a handy, step-by-step guide for readers on how to blow a safe.


When Godfrey Smith took over from Boxer, he


instituted a strict regime of enormous lunches. “Sumptuous game pies and ideas would flow, sometimes 50 or 60,” reminisces Perry. Ideas, that is, not pies. “I never really wanted to go on holiday,” says


Suzanne Hodgart, a long-time staff member who kept the show on the road. “It was so much fun.” There was particular fun when Godders read


out Evans’s memos, generally about useful subjects such as teeth cleaning, in a Northern accent, then dismiss them with ‘f*** off’. These editorial skirmishes ceased when,


after seven years, Godfrey was hauled off to the steam section. Magnus Linklater, who was later to edit The Scotsman, replaced him. Linklater soon discovered £80,000-worth of unpublished articles.


“I was supposed to be sorting out all those ‘pansies’ but they were such a brilliant, brilliant lot of people doing brilliant things. The accusation against me was that I went native.” “Within a week,” agrees Norman. The task of Hunter Davies, who followed


Linklater, was to lay down the law. After he had left, he said, “I didn’t enjoy my spell as editor,” so he probably succeeded. Let’s hope the lady downstairs was now happy. Full disclosure. The copy I dropped in was a


Which?-style guide to prisons. In Everyone’s Gone to the Moon, the commissioning of a Good Nick Guide is one of the dodgy ideas that leads to the sacking of the magazine editor. In real life, my feature was killed off by the Home Office. However, it was nice to have played my part in the £80,000 overmatter bill.


theJournalist | 13


Looking back to:


1962 JEFF MORGAN 02 / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO


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