Posted by Raoul Djukanovic on November 7, 2009, 6:13:10, in reply to "A core readership of the well educated, the unemployed and people in prison" Link: Michael White's Diary
It is a national disgrace. The week may pass with scarce acknowledgment that two of the nation's cherished literary magazines are celebrating their 30th birthday within days of each other – not even a joint service at St Paul's, despite their shared interests. The London Review of Books began as a supplement to its New York sister just as the Thatcher era was emerging. It now sells 44,000 copies among the progressive intelligentsia – the sort of people who so dislike Labour. Founded two days earlier in Chris Donald's bedroom at the parental home in Jesmond – the progressive quarter of Newcastle – was Viz, hand-stapled and sold in pubs for 20p. It mocks politicians too. At its peak Viz sold 1.2m, but still shifts about 80,000 at a yuppie £3 a pop. Karl Miller never edited Viz. Tariq Ali, Salman Rushdie or Eric Hobsbawm never contributed words or cartoons. Unlike Jeremy Clarkson, they may not even have read it regularly, or followed the careers of Buster Gonad, Johnny Fartpants, Sid the Sexist or the Fat Slags. Yet both magazines address the concerns of what the LRB calls "the common reader", and seek to entertain them with "complex, witty and surprising writing". Happy birthday, both.
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