Publish and Be Murdered by Ruth Dudley Edwards Page B

to do if he sacked a brilliant and prolific journalist. And of course, knowing this, Dwight goes ever more his own way and grins as Willie squirms. Willie is left with petulance as almost his only weapon.’
    Amiss began to feel rather gloomy. ‘Are you telling me that Willie’s no good?’
    ‘Willie could have been good, but he chose otherwise. Essentially, early on he gave up on intellectual rigour and integrity. He can write elegantly, I grant you, and his mind is at least half furnished. But when it comes to the crunch, duchesses and cabinet ministers will always take precedence over truth. Hence The Wrangler ’s line on New Labour: it attacks because it has to, but as far as Willie can fix it, attacks in ways that do not wound.’
    ‘But I’ve seen some pretty ferocious criticism in recent months, Henry.’
    ‘Ah yes, but never by Willie. Willie can always flutter his hands at the Downing Street would-be press censors and tell them that I cannot be controlled, so it’s not his fault. But if you look at anything he writes you’ll find that more and more those he criticizes in New Labour are those our new rulers are happy to see thrown to the wolves. And as far as possible, depending what his colleagues will put up with, he tries to make the anonymous leaders as inoffensive as possible.
    ‘In his heart and in his soul Willie Lambie Crump is an apparatchik who would love to drag this journal towards total support of the government of Anthony Blair. However, I will continue to make this as difficult for him as I can.’
    ‘Is it just you against him?’
    ‘Phoebe follows the party line because she has little choice. She would not be listened to, even though she has one of the best brains we’ve had since the war. Amaryllis Vercoe is bright and thinks like us, but she’s rather shallow, and anyway, has little clout with Willie. Clement Webber shouts a lot and then goes back to Oxford. So apart from me, the challenge is coming from Dwight, who is everything Willie is not: intellectually curious, vigorous, original and energetic. Dwight will make imaginative and intellectual leaps into the unknown, yet he retains an instinctive understanding of the essence of the Burkean conservative. Willie skims along the surface: Dwight dives underneath it.’
    He poured another slug of whisky, and ignoring Amiss’s shake of the head, poured some into his glass too. ‘If things get worse, I’ll have to try and topple Willie: we’ve got to get back to the glory days when The Wrangler thrilled with iconoclasm and intellectual daring.’
    ‘You’re actually trying to bring about a change of editor?’
    ‘It’s too early yet, but I’m considering future steps.’
    Amiss cursed inwardly when the phone rang.
    ‘What? Now? Already?’ Potbury looked at his watch. ‘My dear, I do apologize. You’re absolutely right. I was caught in an agreeable conversation and quite forgot where I was. I shall see you as soon as I can get to you.’ Downing his whisky, he lumbered to his feet. ‘Forgive me… I’m sorry, but I’ve forgotten your name again.’
    ‘Robert.’
    ‘Forgive me, Robert. I’m delighted you’ve joined us and I look forward to many more conversations in this room and elsewhere. Drop in any time and if I’m asleep wake me up.’ He grinned, and stopping only to pick up the jacket that lay in the corner, left with more speed than Amiss would have given him credit for.
     
    Petulance was much in evidence at the meeting next Monday. Gone was the harmony of the previous week, when the emperor Lambie Crump had held forth when he wished and enjoyed the intellectual ping-pong played by the others when he wanted a rest. The offender was the weedy, bespectacled, impish Dwight Winterton, who gazed innocently at Lambie Crump as he artlessly explained that the sweeping statement he had just made about the French economy had no basis in reality and was totally contradicted by what he, Winterton, had picked up on his visit