Among the gifts under the tree on Christmas morning was 10,000 Not Out: The History of The Spectator 1828-2020 by David Butterfield. The number in the title refers to the number of weekly issues published since the early 19th Century (it is larger now). Matt Ridley in his Foreward states that The Spectator is “the oldest magazine in the English language” while the author declares in his Preface that it is “the oldest weekly magazine in the world.”
The drawing on the book’s cover shows a crowd of people in a cafe, including a man in a top hat and one in a bowler. A wigged barrister is reading an early, unillustrated version of the magazine and a young woman is reading a recent edition on an iPad. In the background the former editor and current prime minister Boris Johnson appears to be biting the shoulder of a waitress.
