The Pendulum Years: Britain in the Sixties

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I couldn't teach, I couldn't paint, I couldn't compose, I couldn't be a businessman. The only possible exception was the bar. Otherwise I am totally useless." Often, the leader of a project about to begin, wanting to inspire their troops, will conclude a speech with “ Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!” Such criticisms are out of date. In the US alone we have 500 reporters and editors. We are doing great journalism around the world. At the same time, we believe that aggregation is a great service to our readers.

Levin reviewed television for the Manchester Guardian and wrote a weekly political column in The Spectator noted for its irreverence and influence on modern parliamentary sketches. During the 1960s he wrote five columns a week for the Daily Mail on any subject that he chose. After a disagreement with the proprietor of the paper over attempted censorship of his column in 1970, Levin moved to The Times where, with one break of just over a year in 1981–82, he remained as resident columnist until his retirement, covering a wide range of topics, both serious and comic. Credit, though, where credit is due. Levin’s habit of staying with a story too long comes in handy when the story is about what the Gas Board is doing to some poor old darling’s kitchen. As the Gas Board goes on and on replacing the wrong part with another wrong part, you can depend upon it that the poor old darling is keeping Levin bang up to date with all the details. The details usually turn out to be funnier than Levin’s comments on them, but at least they are there. Levin, Bernard, "A noble dream, but I won't see it and nor will you", The Times, 22 October 1982, p. 12

Taper is one of a pair of such characters in Coningsby; the other is called Tadpole, a pseudonym never adopted by Levin. [21] Brian Inglis, assistant editor of The Spectator at the time of Levin's appointment, later said that the by-line "Taper" had been chosen for the column in case Levin turned out to be unsatisfactory and had to be replaced. [11] Levin resigned from the Daily Mail in 1970 after refusing to change a comment piece that told its readers to vote Labour. He turned down the offer of a job at The Guardian, opting for The Times because, he said, he would rather “write against the grain” of the paper. He would remain the paper’s chief columnist until 1995, penning well over 2,000 pieces – in 1997 he stopped writing for the paper altogether because of the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

In 1956, Levin found himself in irreconcilable disagreement with Truth's support of the Anglo-French military action in the Suez Crisis. [12] The proprietor and editor of the long-established weekly The Spectator, Ian Gilmour, invited Levin to join his staff. [5] Levin left Truth and became the political correspondent of The Spectator. He declared that he was no expert in politics, but Gilmour advised him, "review it as you would review television". [11] Levin wrote his column under the pseudonym "Taper", from the name of a corrupt political insider in Disraeli's 1844 novel Coningsby. [n 5] He followed Gilmour's advice, becoming, as The Guardian's Simon Hoggart said, "the father of the modern parliamentary sketch": Other publishing credits included Newsweek and the International Herald Tribune, and he had a distinguished broadcasting career, with radio and TV appearances on the BBC and ITV. That Was the Week That Was broke new ground for the world of TV comedy. It featured David Frost, who has gone on to become an established face on BBC TV.Having graduated from the LSE in 1952, Levin worked briefly as a tour guide, and then joined the BBC's North American Service. His job was to read all the newspapers and weekly magazines, selecting articles that might be useful for broadcasting. [5] Journalism [ edit ] Levin was once punched on live television while appearing on the satirical programme, That Was The Week That Was. Bernard's books included collections of his columns for The Times - the column being his natural form. But there were others too, The Pendulum Years (1971) a history of the 1960s, Conducted Tour (1981), a survey of the music festivals of Europe, and in 1985 he undertook a walk across Spain and France which led to In Hannibal's Footsteps, an informative and entertaining account of his walk and the places he passed through. He followed this with The End Of The Rhine (1987), another excellent account of a walk down the length of the river. A Walk Up Fifth Avenue (1989) was not so successful. His last book, published in 1998, was Enough Said. He became a CBE in 1990. In some senses he had mellowed. He enjoyed the best relations with successive editors of the Times. They liked and admired him for several qualities, loyalty being the most outstanding. His capacity for work was legendary. If he was going away for a few weeks, he would write 12 articles to be used in his absence. Gradually he came to write fewer vituperative articles and more ruminative ones on music (especially Wagner), literature and the arts, never forsaking his pet hates - lawyers, especially judges, and home secretaries.