“... attention must charm as well as instruct; this is not so, I think, in other countries,’ writes Ferdinand Mount. Who better to illustrate the claim? Few figures in the world of English letters possess such a combination of credentials. Author of a number of novels; columnist or leader-writer for half of the nation’s press, with a record of service ...”

“... Living and working within the family he had joined would inevitably set up personal links. Ferdinand Mount’s book on the family is a skilful piece of popularisation. Its content is much what can be found in the relevant parts of social history courses – a look at the family over time, and the recognition of its remarkable consistency in ...”

“... has resurrected the myth of yeoman virtue to warn against the bureaucracies of Brussels. Ferdinand Mount – thinking for the less militant tendency – has been altogether more subtle. A free-trade area with a common currency and an impotent parliament (the extension at Maastricht of the Treaty of Rome), together with the power that European ...”

“... for somebody to say something . . . and wait . . . and wait . . . It is in this context that Ferdinand Mount’s book Mind the Gap is so welcome. He has written an essay about class in which it is possible to disagree with almost every assertion and produce counter-examples for almost every fact, but which gives the strange, giddy-making sensation ...”

“... and shoot down unarmed protesters, gets misdirected at Israelis’ cousins and co-religionists. Ferdinand Mount has described the Balfour Declaration of 1917 as ‘the last gasp of Edwardian nonchalance’, adding: ‘It is hard to imagine Palmerston or Peel launching into such a wild promise without thinking it through.’ But is it really right to ...”

“... in the 1980s it lost money every year and by 1990 circulation was down to 26,000 copies. When Ferdinand Mount was appointed editor in 1990 he diplomatically announced that, while contemplating some changes, he did not want to tamper with ‘the bedrock virtues of the paper – the comprehensive coverage, the adventurousness, the readiness to cover ...”

“... it is probably more informative about asthma than love. Non-sufferers could usefully consult Mount’s novel for instruction on asthma pillows, inhalers, and the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic conditions of the ailment. Asthma is hell on earth – but not without its compensating excitements. The narrative, which covers thirty years, begins ...”

“... Fund to release money for the acquisition of the papers of living British authors. On 9 April, Ferdinand Mount used his pulpit in the TLS to add reasoned support for a long-term policy of preserving the national literary heritage in the copyright libraries – specifically by the acquisition of the materials of currently active writers. Clearly ...”

“... and it is so sad to think that I shall never hear his confidential voice over the telephone again. Ferdinand Mount I joined the TLS straight out of university in the 1990s, so only overlapped briefly with John, but he left a very deep impression on me, as he did on all who were lucky enough to meet him and work with him. When he decided to move to the ...”

“... were the injury. It’s thus a relevant fact about Who Cares about the White Working Class? that Ferdinand Mount, who once advised Thatcher, is twice cited and praised here for condemning the middle class’s bad behaviour in displaying its open contempt for ‘working-class cultures’. He represents an improvement over those who seek to blame the poor ...”

“... about world events, something it has continued to do very well under its now departing editor, Ferdinand Mount. May’s book ends with some good anecdotes. I liked his remarks about Nicolas Walter, the great epistolary rationalist, who was an editor at the TLS until contributors began to complain that he was randomly adding the names of famous ...”

“... decency and amiability of his origins. At the beginning of his own journalistic career, Ferdinand Mount somewhat incongruously worked at the tabloid Daily Sketch, under the man who later transformed the Daily Mail. In his memoir Cold Cream, Mount says drily that great editors are rarely nice men, ‘and David ...”

“... between new right and old left. But can it stay there, and should it? On the first question, as Ferdinand Mount reported – and of all the reports on the SDP’s Conference, only the Spectator’s had more than a sentence on its policy – the man who’s responsible for many of these ideas, Richard Layard, is suitably sceptical. But it may not be so ...”

“... fell apart, and the Palestine sepsis never infected the motherland’s domestic politics.As Ferdinand Mount wrote here recently, ‘what seems to become clearer is the ultimate failure of the imperial ideal to take root in the popular imagination’ (LRB, 22 February). Myopic and flattering as their take on empire history has been, the Brits never ...”

“... has unearthed in the British Library, he urged Buckingham that it was time for the prince to ‘mount’ Spain. In fact, Gondomar was seriously out of touch with opinion at home, and was more respected by James I than by his own king. He never appreciated that the marriage would be impossible without Charles’s conversion, or that the Spanish would demand ...”