The Oldie

A hack's best training? The university of life

The Left-leaning journalist Ian Jack, whom I once knew well, has died at the age of 77.

He was an excellent editor and a beautiful writer, as his obituarists have noted. What they have generally missed is that he was one of the last of a breed once common in journalism - the autodidact who hasn't been to university.

For much of the 20th century, some of the greatest journalists were in the same mould. J L Garvin, editor of the from 1908 until

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