Three cheers for life and to hell with the pessimists

When I first came to London, half a century ago, the head of the journalistic profession was Arthur Christiansen. ‘Chris’ was much admired in the trade. I considered it a signal honour to have a drink with him in what his employer, Lord Beaverbrook, called ‘El Vino’s Public House’. Beaverbrook made him editor of the Daily Express, and over the quarter-century of his rule there he raised its circulation from 1,700,000 to well over four million. It was the finest popular newspaper in the world. One of Chris’s sayings was, ‘You may speak with the tongues of angels and write with the pen of Shakespeare but you cannot beat news in a newspaper.’ (How true; and how forgotten today.) Hoping to inspire one of these lapidary remarks, I asked him, ‘To what do you attribute your success, Sir?’ He replied, ‘Optimism.’

It was true. The Express of those days exuded good cheer and glamour.