Editing Richard Ingrams

{{short description|English journalist}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Richard Ingrams
| birth_date         = {{birth date and age|1937|8|19|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[London]], [[England]]
| education          = [[University College, Oxford]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])
| occupation         = Journalist, author, satirist
| spouse             = {{marriage|Sara Soudain|2011}}
| children           = 3
}}
'''Richard Reid Ingrams''' (born 19 August 1937)<ref>{{cite web |title=Article &#124; Richard Ingrams My music &#124; Page 146 - May 2002 - Gramophone… |url=http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page/May%202002/146/819854/Richard+Ingrams |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120804170805/http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page/May%202002/146/819854/Richard+Ingrams |archive-date=4 August 2012 |access-date=3 February 2022 |website=www.gramophone.net}}</ref> is an English journalist, a co-founder and second editor of the British [[satire|satirical]] magazine ''[[Private Eye (magazine)|Private Eye]]'', and founding editor of ''[[The Oldie]]'' magazine. He left the latter job at the end of May 2014.<ref name="Quinn">Ben Quinn [https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/may/31/richard-ingrams-resigns-editor-oldie "Richard Ingrams resigns as editor of the Oldie over dispute with publisher"], ''The Guardian'', 31 May 2014</ref>

==Early life and education==
[[File:Shrewsbury School 1.JPG|thumb|Shrewsbury School]]
Ingrams's parents, who had three other sons including the banker and opera impresario [[Leonard Ingrams]],<ref name="telegraph.co.uk">{{cite news |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/8357443/Richard-Ingrams-in-love-is-he-serious.html |title=Richard Ingrams in love – is he serious? |first=Elizabeth |last=Grice |work=The Telegraph |location= London |date=3 March 2011}}</ref> were Leonard St Clair Ingrams (1900–1953)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/old-at-heart-richard-ingrams/|title=Ginny Dougary :: Award-winning journalist and writer » Old at heart: Richard Ingrams}}</ref> an investment banker from a clergy family who worked as a government official in propaganda, economic warfare and the secret services during World War II,<ref>Winning the Peace: The British in Occupied Germany, 1945–1948, Christopher Knowles, 2017, p. 218</ref><ref>Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. Lawrence Goldman, 2013, p. 587</ref> and Victoria, the daughter of [[Sir James Reid]], private physician to Queen Victoria. Through his maternal grandmother and her ties to the [[Baring family]], Ingrams is a direct descendant of the 19th-century prime minister [[Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey|Charles Grey]].<ref name="independant.co.uk">[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/leonard-ingrams-303060.html Leonard Ingrams] by Paul Levy, ''The Independent'', 1 August 2005.</ref>

Ingrams was educated at the independent [[Preparatory school (UK)|preparatory school]] [[West Downs School|West Downs]] in [[Winchester]], Hampshire, followed by [[Shrewsbury School]], where he met [[Willie Rushton]] and edited the school magazine. Before attending Oxford, he did his [[National Service]] in the army ranks after failing his interview for officer training, something which was unusual for someone from his background at the time. At [[University College, Oxford]], where he read Classics, he shared tutorials with [[Robin Butler, Baron Butler of Brockwell|Robin Butler]], later cabinet secretary and sometimes referred to as a "pillar of [[the Establishment]]". Ingrams also met [[Paul Foot (journalist)|Paul Foot]], another former Shrewsbury pupil, not yet the left-wing radical he became, who became a lifelong friend and whose biography Ingrams wrote after Foot's death.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

==Career==
Along with several other [[Old Salopians]], including [[Willie Rushton]], Ingrams founded ''Private Eye'' in 1962, taking over the editorship from [[Christopher Booker]] in 1963. It was a classic case, he claimed on ''[[Desert Island Discs]]'' in 2008, of the "old boy network". ''[[Private Eye]]'' was part of the [[satire boom]] of the early 1960s, which included the television show ''[[That Was The Week That Was]]'', for which Ingrams wrote, and [[The Establishment (club)|The Establishment]] nightclub, run by [[Peter Cook]]. When ''Private Eye'' ran into financial problems Cook was able to gain a majority shareholding on the proceeds of his brief but financially successful venture.

Ingrams vacated the editor's chair at the ''Eye'' in 1986, when [[Ian Hislop]] took over. In 1992 Ingrams created and became editor of ''[[The Oldie]]'', a now monthly humorous lifestyle and issues magazine mainly aimed at the older generation. As of 2005 he was still chairman of ''Private Eye'', working there every Monday,<ref name="McGibbon">Rob McGibbon [https://web.archive.org/web/20080526110922/http://www.robmcgibbon.com/index.php5?t=article&l=press-conference-withor-without-richard-ingrams "Richard Ingrams interview"], ''[[Press Gazette]]'' 15 December 2005.</ref> spending four days a week in London.<ref>Deborah Bosley [https://web.archive.org/web/20080517061245/http://www.newstatesman.com/200006260024 "Country living stinks"], ''New Statesman'', 26 June 2000. Retrieved on 3 August 2008.</ref>

He was television critic for ''[[The Spectator]]'' from 1976 to 1984, though he rarely showed much enthusiasm for the medium. He was a regular on the radio panel quiz ''[[The News Quiz]]'' for its first twenty years and contributed a column to ''[[The Observer]]'' for eighteen years.<ref name="McGibbon"/> In late 2005 he moved to ''[[The Independent]]'', considering ''The Observer'' to have gone downhill, particularly as a consequence of its support for the Iraq war.<ref name="McGibbon"/> In his 27 August 2011 column, he announced that he had been sacked by the newly appointed editor of ''The Independent''. Shortly after the death of [[Jimmy Savile]], Ingrams' ''The Oldie'' was the first publication to break the story of Savile's history of child abuse, after several national newspapers had been unwilling to print it.<ref>William Turvill [http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/why-oldie-exposed-savile-child-abuse-i-just-thought-it-was-good-story "Why The Oldie exposed Savile child abuse: 'I just thought it was a good story'"], ''Press Gazette'', 2 April 2013</ref>

After a series of clashes with James Pembroke, owner and publisher of ''The Oldie'', Ingrams left the magazine at the end of May 2014 having resigned as editor.<ref name="Quinn"/> His most recent book{{when|date=November 2024}} is a biography of [[Ludovic Kennedy]].

==Personal life==
Ingrams married Mary Morgan on 24 November 1962;<ref>{{Cite web |url= https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=fj7hDhWXLlbtD7Qt29y%2FjQ&scan=1 |title=Index entry |access-date=30 August 2020 |work=FreeBMD |publisher=ONS}}</ref> they had three children: a son, Fred, who is an artist; a second son, Arthur, who was disabled and died in childhood; and a daughter, Margaret ("Jubby") a mother of three who died in 2004, aged 39, of a heroin overdose in Brighton.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.standard.co.uk/news/daughter-of-exprivate-eye-editor-killed-by-overdose-6959562.html |title=Daughter of ex-Private Eye editor killed by overdose |work=Evening Standard |location= London|date=21 July 2004}}</ref>

Ingrams played the organ for many years in his local [[Anglican]] church in [[Aldworth]], Berkshire, each Sunday.<ref name="Leapman1">{{cite news |first=Michael |last=Leapman |url= http://www.newstatesman.com/200203110012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20061227192003/http://www.newstatesman.com/200203110012 |archive-date=27 December 2006 |work=New Statesman |location= London |title= Profile – Richard Ingrams |date=11 March 2002 |access-date=3 August 2008 |url-status= dead}}</ref> The [[Romney Marsh]] Historic Churches Trust was formed under the patronage of Ingrams and the then [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], [[Robert Runcie]]. In 2011 he announced he had converted to [[Roman Catholicism]].<ref name="telegraph.co.uk"/>

Ingrams currently lives in Berkshire with his wife (who is also his god-daughter) Sara, a medical researcher.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jun/08/richard-ingrams-oldie-private-eye |title= Richard Ingrams: 'I have lots of enemies, some of them enduring' |first=Stuart |last=Jeffries |work=The Guardian |location= London |date=8 June 2014}}</ref> Before they married in 2011 he had a "long-term partner, Debbie Bosley, a waitress-turned novelist 27 years his junior".<ref>'Richard Ingrams In Love: Is He Serious?', Elizabeth Grice, ''The Daily Telegraph'', 3 March 2011</ref>

His sister-in-law (wife of his late brother Rupert, a publisher) was [[Davina Ingrams, 18th Baroness Darcy de Knayth]]; his nephew Caspar is the present baron.

A biography, ''Richard Ingrams: Lord of the Gnomes'' ({{ISBN|0-434-77828-1}}) by [[Harry Thompson]], was published in 1994. In 2020, his life was encapsulated in a satirical mock-autobiography, "Richard Ingrams Writes his Memoirs," published in ''The Fence''.<ref>[https://www.the-fence.com/products/issue-4/ 'Richard Ingrams Writes his Memoirs', Kevin Gardner, ''The Fence'', Issue 4, Summer 2020, p. 44]</ref>
[[File:Richard Ingrams Writes His Memoirs.png|thumb|alt=A truthful but satirical poem purporting to be Ingrams' autobiography|Richard Ingrams Writes His Memoirs]]

==Books by Ingrams==

===As author===
{{Div col}}
* ''Mrs Wilson's Diary'' (with [[John Wells (satirist)|John Wells]]) 1965
* ''Mrs Wilson's Second Diary'' (with [[John Wells (satirist)|John Wells]]) 1966
* ''Mrs Wilson's Diaries'' (with [[John Wells (satirist)|John Wells]]) 1967
* ''The Tale of Driver Grope'' (with [[Ralph Steadman]]) 1969
* ''The Bible for Motorists: By Old Jowett'' (with [[Barry Fantoni]]) 1970
* ''Harris in Wonderland: By Philip Reid'' (pseudonym of Ingrams and Andrew Osmond) 1973
* ''God's Apology: A Chronicle of Three Friends'' 1977
* ''Goldenballs'' 1979
* ''[[Dear Bill]]: The Collected Letters of [[Denis Thatcher]]'' (with [[John Wells (satirist)|John Wells]]) 1980
* ''Romney Marsh and the Royal Military Canal'' (with [[Fay Godwin]]) 1980
* ''The Other Half: Further Letters of Denis Thatcher'' (with [[John Wells (satirist)|John Wells]]) 1981
* ''One for the Road'' (with [[John Wells (satirist)|John Wells]]) 1982
* ''Piper's Places: [[John Piper (artist)|John Piper]] in England & Wales'' (with John Piper) 1983
* ''My Round!'' (with [[John Wells (satirist)|John Wells]]) 1983
* ''Bottoms Up!'' (with [[John Wells (satirist)|John Wells]]) 1984
* ''Down the Hatch!'' (with [[John Wells (satirist)|John Wells]]) 1985
* ''[[John Stewart Collis]]: A Memoir'' 1986
* ''Just the One'' (with [[John Wells (satirist)|John Wells]]) 1986
* ''The Best of "Dear Bill"'' (with [[John Wells (satirist)|John Wells]]) 1986
* ''Mud in Your Eye!'' (with [[John Wells (satirist)|John Wells]]) 1987
* ''You Might as Well be Dead'' 1988
* ''Still Going Strong'' (with [[John Wells (satirist)|John Wells]]) 1988
* ''[[The Ridgeway]]: Europe's Oldest Road'' 1988
* ''Number 10'' (with [[John Wells (satirist)|John Wells]]) 1989
* ''On and On'' (with [[John Wells (satirist)|John Wells]]) 1990
* ''[[Malcolm Muggeridge|Muggeridge]]: The Biography'' 1995
* ''My Friend Footy: A Memoir of [[Paul Foot (journalist)|Paul Foot]]'' 2005
* ''The Life and Adventures of [[William Cobbett]]'' 2005
* ''Quips and Quotes: A Journalist's Commonplace Book'' 2011
* ''Ludo and the Power of the Book: [[Ludovic Kennedy]]'s Campaigns for Justice'' 2017
* ''The Sins of [[G. K. Chesterton]]'' 2021
{{Div col end}}

===As compiler and editor===
{{Div col}}
* ''What the Papers Never Meant to Say: "Private Eye's" Second Book of Boobs'' 1968
* ''The Life and Times of Private Eye 1961–1971'' 1971
* ''Beachcomber: The Works of [[J. B. Morton]]'' 1974
* ''Cobbett's Country Book: An Anthology of William Cobbett's Writings on Country Matters'' 1974
* ''"Private Eye's" Book of Pseuds: A Mood Statement'' 1975
* ''"Private Eye's" Second Book of Pseuds'' 1977
* ''The Penguin Book of Private Eye Cartoons'' 1983
* ''[[Samuel Johnson|Dr Johnson]] by [[Mrs Thrale]]: The "Anecdotes" of Mrs Piozzi in Their Original Form'' 1984
* ''England: An Anthology'' 1989
* ''The Bumper Beachcomber'' 1991
* ''The Oldie Book of Cartoons'' 1996
* ''More Cartoons'' 1996
* ''I Once Met: Fifty Encounters with the Famous'' 1996
* ''Jesus: Authors Take Sides: An Anthology'' 1999
* ''The Oldie Book of Cartoons, 1992–2009'' 2009
* ''The Oldie Book of Cartoons: A New Selection'' 2013
{{Div col end}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051216093815/http://www.davidrowan.com/2005/09/interview-richard-ingrams-observer.html Richard Ingrams interview]

{{s-start}}
{{s-media}}
{{succession box | before=[[Christopher Booker]] | title=Editor of ''[[Private Eye (magazine)|Private Eye]]'' | years=1963–1986 | after=[[Ian Hislop]] }}
{{s-end}}
{{Private Eye}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ingrams, Richard}}
[[Category:1937 births]]
[[Category:Military personnel from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea]]
[[Category:People from Chelsea, London]]
[[Category:20th-century British Army personnel]]
[[Category:20th-century English journalists]]
[[Category:21st-century English journalists]]
[[Category:Alumni of University College, Oxford]]
[[Category:British Army soldiers]]
[[Category:British magazine founders]]
[[Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism]]
[[Category:English Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:English magazine editors]]
[[Category:English male journalists]]
[[Category:English radio personalities]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People educated at Shrewsbury School]]
[[Category:People educated at West Downs School]]
[[Category:Private Eye contributors]]
[[Category:The Independent people]]
[[Category:The Observer people]]
[[Category:The Spectator people]]
[[Category:English columnists]]
[[Category:British humourous columnists]]
[[Category:British satirical columnists]]