Editing Ferdinand Mount

{{Short description|British writer (born 1939)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2016}}

{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix    = Sir
| name                = Ferdinand Mount
| honorific_suffix    = [[Mount baronets|Bt]]
| image               = 
| caption             =
| office              = [[Number 10 Policy Unit|Director of Number 10 Policy Unit]]
| alongside           =
| primeminister       = [[Margaret Thatcher]]
| predecessor         = [[John Hoskyns (policy advisor)|John Hoskyns]]
| successor           = [[John Redwood]]
| term_start          = 1982
| term_end            = 1983
| birth_name          = William Robert Ferdinand Mount
| birth_date          = {{birth date and age|1939|07|02|df=yes}}
| birth_place         =
| death_date          =
| death_place         =
| education           = [[Greenways School]] <br /> [[Sunningdale School]] <br /> [[Eton College]]
| party               = 
| spouse              = Julia (née Lucas)
| children            = 4
| relatives           = [[Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet|Sir William Mount]]
| alma_mater          = [[Christ Church, Oxford]]
| otherparty          =
| occupation          = [[Writer]], [[novelist]]
}}

'''Sir William Robert Ferdinand Mount, 3rd Baronet''', [[FRSL]] (born 2 July 1939), is a British writer, novelist, and columnist for ''[[The Sunday Times]]'', as well as a political commentator.

==Life==
Ferdinand Mount, brought up by his parents in the isolated village of [[Chitterne]], [[Wiltshire]], England, began school at the age of eight.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|date=2008-04-25|title='I'm just a butterfly' {{!}} Ferdinand Mount|interviewer=Stephen Moss |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/apr/25/culture.features|access-date=2022-02-09|newspaper=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref> He then attended [[Greenways School|Greenways]] and [[Sunningdale School]] before [[Eton College]], after which he went to [[Christ Church, Oxford]].

Mount worked at [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] HQ as [[Supervisor|head]] of the [[Number 10 Policy Unit]] during 1982–83, when [[Margaret Thatcher]] was Prime Minister<ref name="moss">{{cite news|last=Moss|first=Stephen|title=Lord Young has found that soundbites sometimes bite back|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/nov/19/lord-young-soundbites-never-had-it-so-good|access-date=11 December 2010|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=19 November 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=MacLeod|first=Alexander|title=Mrs. Thatcher sets up her own advisory team|newspaper=[[The Christian Science Monitor]]|date=1 December 1982}}</ref> and played a significant part in devising the 1983 general election [[manifesto]].

Mount is regarded as being on the [[One-nation conservatism|one-nation]] or "wet" side of the Conservative Party.{{by whom?|date=July 2023}} He succeeded his uncle, [[Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet|Sir William Mount]], in the [[hereditary title|family title]] as 3rd [[baronet]] in 1993, but prefers to remain known as Ferdinand Mount.<ref>{{cite book
 | editor-last = Mosley| editor-first = Charles 
 | title = [[Burke's Peerage]] & Baronetage, 107th edn
 | location = London
 | publisher = Burke's Peerage & Gentry Ltd
 | page = 2801 (MOUNT, Bt)
 | date = 2003
 | isbn = 0-9711966-2-1}}</ref>

For eleven years (1991–2002), he was editor of ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'',<ref name="tryhorn"/> and then became a regular contributor to ''[[Standpoint (magazine)|Standpoint]]'' magazine. He wrote for ''[[The Sunday Times]]'', and in 2005 joined ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' as a commentator.<ref name="tryhorn">{{cite news|last=Tryhorn|first=Chris|title=Ferdinand Mount joins Telegraph|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/mar/01/pressandpublishing.thedailytelegraph|access-date=11 December 2010|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=1 March 2005}}</ref> He writes for the ''[[London Review of Books]]''.<ref>E.g., * Ferdinand Mount, "Why We Go to War", ''[[London Review of Books]]'', vol. 41, no. 11 (6 June 2019), pp. 11–14.  "[H]istorians have tended to weave their narratives around [...] high-flown themes:  the struggle to maintain the [[Balance of power (international relations)|balance of power]], the struggles against [[fascism]] and [[communism]], against the [[French Revolution]] or [[Militarism#Germany|German militarism]].  In reality, most large wars have contained within them a violent and persistent economic conflict. [p. 12.] Not for one second do [the UK's [[Brexit]]eers] pause to think how hard-won [Europe's economic integration and peace, within the [[European Union]], have] been.  They are the feckless children of seventy years of peace." [p. 14.]</ref>

Mount has written novels, including a six-volume [[novel sequence]] called ''Chronicle of Modern Twilight'', centring on a low-key character, Gus Cotton; the title alludes to the sequence ''A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight'' by [[Henry Williamson]], and another sequence entitled ''Tales of History and Imagination''. Volume 5, entitled ''Fairness'', was long-listed for the [[Man Booker Prize]] in 2001.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Ferdinand Mount {{!}} The Booker Prizes|url=https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/authors/ferdinand-mount|access-date=2022-02-09|website=thebookerprizes.com|language=en}}</ref>

Mount serves as chairman of the [[Friends of the British Library]]<ref>[http://support.bl.uk/Files/5370a806-8a5c-4ce8-a969-a47b00d10ba7/FBL-Officers-and-Council-May-2015.pdf www.bl.uk]</ref> and was elected a [[fellow of the Royal Society of Literature]] (FRSL) in 1991.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sir Ferdinand Mount|url=https://rsliterature.org/fellow/ferdinand-mount-3/|access-date=2022-02-09|website=Royal Society of Literature|language=en-GB}}</ref>

==Family==
[[File:Coat of Arms of Mount Baronets.svg|thumb|Coat of arms of the Mount baronets of Wasing<ref>{{cite book |title=Burke's Peerage & baronetage |date=1999 |publisher=[[Burke's Peerage]] |location=Crans, Switzerland |isbn=978-2-940085-02-6 |page=2013|volume=2}}</ref>]]
The only son of Robert (Robin) Mount, an army officer and amateur steeplechase jockey,<ref>{{Cite news|last=Carey|first=The Sunday Times review by John|title=Cold Cream: My Early Life and Other Mistakes by Ferdinand Mount|newspaper=[[The Times]] |language=en|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/cold-cream-my-early-life-and-other-mistakes-by-ferdinand-mount-bp2lrd6h69n|access-date=2022-02-09|issn=0140-0460}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> and Lady Julia Pakenham, youngest daughter of the [[Thomas Pakenham, 5th Earl of Longford|5th Earl of Longford, KP]], Ferdinand inherited the [[baronetcy]] from his uncle [[Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet|Lt-Col. Sir William Mount, Bt, TD, DL]], who died in 1993, having had three daughters, including [[Family of David Cameron|Mary Cameron, JP (b. 1934)]], mother of [[David Cameron]], former [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] (and Conservative Party leader).<ref name="moss"/><ref>{{cite news|last=Bell|first=Matthew|title=Still talking turkey|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/matthew-bell-the-iiosi-diary-281110-2145593.html|access-date=11 December 2010|newspaper=[[The Independent]]|date=28 November 2010}}</ref>

The Labour politician [[Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford]], and his brother, [[Edward Pakenham, 6th Earl of Longford]], were Mount's maternal uncles. His maternal aunts were the writers [[Lady Mary Clive]], [[Lady Pansy Lamb]] and [[Lady Violet Powell]], the wife of author [[Anthony Powell]].

Sir Ferdinand and his wife, Julia ''née'' Lucas, live in [[Islington]], London; he and Lady Mount have three surviving children, William (b. 1969 and [[heir apparent]] to the [[hereditary title|title]]), [[Harry Mount|Harry]] (b. 1971, a journalist) and Mary (b. 1972, an editor who is married to Indian writer [[Pankaj Mishra]]).<ref>{{Cite news|last=Schuessler|first=Jennifer|date=2012-08-27|title=New Book in Battle Over East vs. West|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/books/pankaj-mishras-new-book-ruins-of-empire.html|access-date=2022-02-09|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

==Works==
===Fiction===
* ''Very Like a Whale'' (1967)
* ''The Clique'' (1978)
* ''The Practice of Liberty'' (1986)
* ''The Condor's Head'' (2007)
* ''Making Nice'' (2021)
====''A Chronicle of Modern Twilight''====
* ''The Man Who Rode Ampersand'' (1975)
* ''The Selkirk Strip'' (1987)
* ''Of Love and Asthma'' (1991), winner of the [[Hawthornden Prize]] 1992
* ''The Liquidator'' (1995)
* ''Fairness'' (2001)
* ''Heads You Win'' (2004)
====''Tales of History and Imagination''====
* ''Umbrella: A Pacific Tale'' (1994)
* ''Jem (and Sam): A Revenger's Tale'' (1999)
===Non-fiction===
* ''The Theatre of Politics'' (1972)
* ''The Subversive Family: An Alternative History of Love and Marriage'' (1982)
* ''Communism: A Times Literary Supplement Companion'' (1992), editor
* ''The British Constitution Now: Recovery or Decline?'' (1992)
* ''The Recovery of the Constitution'' (Sovereignty Lectures) (1992)
* ''Mind the Gap: Class in Britain Now'' (2004)
* ''Private Life 21st Century'' (2006)
* ''Cold Cream: My Early Life and Other Mistakes'' (2009), memoir
* ''Full Circle: How the Classical World Came Back to Us'' (2010)
* ''The New Few: Power and Inequality in Britain Now or A Very British Oligarchy'' (2012)
* ''The Tears of the Rajas: Mutiny, Money and Marriage in India 1805–1905'' (2015)
* ''English Voices: Lives, Landscapes, Laments'' (2016)
* ''Prime Movers: From Pericles to Gandhi'' (2018)
* ''Kiss Myself Goodbye: The Many Lives of Aunt Munca'' (2020)
* ''Big Caesars and Little Caesars: How they rise and fall - from Julius Caesar to Boris Johnson'' (2023)

[[File:BaronetUK.jpg|thumb|right|130px|Insignia of '''baronet''']]
==See also==
* [[Mount baronets]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* [http://www.spectator.co.uk/author/ferdinand-mount/ www.spectator.co.uk]
* [http://www.burkespeerage.com/ www.burkespeerage.com]

{{s-start}}
{{s-gov}}
{{s-bef
| before = [[John Hoskyns (policy advisor)|John Hoskyns]]
}}
{{s-ttl
| title = [[Number 10 Policy Unit]]|Director of Number 10 Policy Unit
| years = 1982–1983
}}
{{s-aft
| after = [[John Redwood]]
}}

{{s-reg|uk-bt}}
{{s-bef| before = [[Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet|Sir William Mount]] }}
{{s-ttl
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| years = '''1993—
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{{s-end}}

{{Director of Number 10 Policy Unit|state=autocollapse}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mount, Ferdinand}}
[[Category:1939 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:20th-century English journalists]]
[[Category:20th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century English journalists]]
[[Category:21st-century English memoirists]]
[[Category:21st-century English novelists]]
[[Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford]]
[[Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:British male journalists]]
[[Category:British male novelists]]
[[Category:Conservative Party (UK) politicians]]
[[Category:Daily Mail journalists]]
[[Category:English columnists]]
[[Category:English newspaper editors]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature]]
[[Category:London Evening Standard people]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:People educated at Greenways School]]
[[Category:People educated at Sunningdale School]]
[[Category:People from Islington (district)]]
[[Category:The Daily Telegraph people]]
[[Category:The Sunday Times people]]
[[Category:Writers from the London Borough of Islington]]
[[Category:Writers from Wiltshire]]
[[Category:Mount family|Ferdinand]]