Editor Extraordinary
Abu Abraham

A great editor of a great newspaper died recently. He was David Astor, editor of The Observer, Sunday weekly of London.

Astor was editor from 1948-75 and he died at the age of 89. Obituaries have described him as one of the most influential newspaper editors of the 20th century.

I was associated with The Observer from 1956 to 1966, a period when the paper was at the height of its influence and prestige.

I shall remember David Astor as the editor who hired me without knowing anything about me. It happened like this. In March 1956, I had drawn a political cartoon in Tribune, a socialist weekly — edited by Michael Foot — for which I was working at that time. Astor had no hesitation in deciding that that was the kind of work he was looking for. When my second drawing appeared, he personally wrote to me, expressing his appreciation and wanting to know whether I would care to draw cartoons for The Observer. ('Abraham' was how I signed my cartoons in those days).

I was taken aback by the letter. Never in its long history had The Observer had a regular political cartoon and it was difficult for me to imagine that they wanted me to be their cartoonist. As the editor had wished in his letter, I went to see him in his office the following week. He didn't bat an eyelid when he saw an Indian walking in. He pulled out a chair for me, brought his own chair from behind his desk and sat on it back to front, leaning on its back with his arms. This put me at ease.

After a little preliminary chat, he came to the point. He said, 'I want to buy you out of Tribune.' He told me the terms and said he could give me a letter of appointment the next day.

Sometime later, he told me that he had imagined from my name that I would be a central European Jewish émigré. When I presented my first cartoon, he asked if I couldn't think of a more suitable signature. He explained that with 'Abraham' my cartoons on the Middle East, for instance, would be given an unnecessary slant. That was the time when the Arab-Israeli crisis was growing worse each day. So I suggested 'Abu', a name that some of my friends at the New Delhi YMCA called me. Astor was happy with that. 'Suitably mysterious,' he remarked.

The Observer office was a leisurely and informal place. It had a string of distinguished intellectuals on its staff. Among them were Philip Toynbee, son of Arnold Toynbee, and Andrew Schonfield, an economist. The editorial conferences were always lively with everyone contributing his or her independent views. David Astor, son of Nancy Astor, the first woman member of the House of Commons, presided over the staff like a father figure. He was a Liberal of the modern kind, more inclined towards the Labour Party than either the Liberal or Conservative parties. The paper promoted the freedom struggles in Africa. It took a strong stand against the Apartheid regime in South Africa, which Astor felt was perpetuating Nazi racism. He became friendly with the young Mandela, sending him law books in jail.

The Observer's 'finest hour' was in November 1956, when Anthony Eden took Britain on a crazy adventure in Suez in the company of the French. It ended in disaster but not until David Astor had written some truly remarkable editorials. One of them said, 'We had not realised that our government was capable of such folly and crookedness.' It continued, 'Sir Anthony Eden must go. His removal from the premiership is scarcely less vital to the prospects of this country than was that of Mr. Neville Chamberlain in May, 1940…. Whatever the Conservative Party may do, it is essential that the world should know that the Eden Administration has no longer the nation's confidence. Unless we can find means of making that absolutely clear, we shall be guilty of an irresponsibility and a folly as great as that of our Government…. Nations are said to have the governments they deserve. Let us show that we deserve better.'

The editorial was a sensation at that time, when the atmosphere was charged with passion. The nation was almost equally divided. In the end, of course, Anthony Eden had to resign — the resignation hastened by ill health. But the paper lost heavily in terms of circulation and revenue. Jewish companies and ultra-Conservative business interests withdrew their support; thousands of readers cancelled their subscription.

The Observer is Britain's oldest newspaper. It was founded in 1791 on a capital of one hundred pounds by W.S. Bourne, a young Irish man of literary ability, and his brother W.H.Bourne, who conducted the financial affairs of the paper. By 1799, their combined energies made The Observer the first successful Sunday newspaper in the country and guaranteed to arrive in Dublin 'when the wind answers' on Wednesday mornings.

The paper changed hands several times in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries until Lord Northcliffe bought it in 1905. From Lord Northcliffe, it went to Lord Astor the First, David's grandfather. The paper was made into a trust in 1945 under the guidance of David Astor. Today it functions as a Sunday companion to The Guardian.