Richard Ingrams

Richard Ingrams (born August 19, 1937) was the second editor of the British satirical magazine Private Eye, taking over from Christopher Booker in 1963. Richard Ingrams was one of four sons. His parents were Leonard St Clair Ingrams and Victoria (née Reid). Ingrams was educated at Shrewsbury School and University College, Oxford where he read Classics. Curiously, he was the tutorial partner of a completely different figure - Robin Butler, Baron Butler of Brockwell - later Cabinet Secretary and very pillar of the Establishment. He carried out his National Service in the ranks after failing his interview for officer training. Along with several of his Shrewsbury friends, including Willie Rushton, Ingrams founded Private Eye in the early 1960s as part of the Satire Boom which also saw the formation of The Establishment nightclub, run by Peter Cook. After handing over the editorship of Private Eye to Ian Hislop in the late 1980s, he moved on to create and edit The Oldie, a monthly humorous lifestyle and issues magazine aimed at the older generation. He was a regular on the radio panel quiz, The News Quiz, and contributed a column to The Observer but in late 2005 moved to The Independent . Ingrams married Mary Morgan in 1962; they have had three children: a son, Fred, who is an artist, a second son, Arthur, who was disabled and died in childhood and a daughter, Margaret Ford, who died of a heroin overdose in Brighton in early 2004. The banker and opera impresario Leonard Ingrams (1941–2005) was one of his brothers. Ingrams is a church-going Anglican; the Romney Marsh Historic Churches Trust was formed under the patronage of Ingrams and the then Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie. A biography, Richard Ingrams: Lord of the Gnomes (ISBN-10: 0434778281) was published by Harry Thompson in 1994.

See also

• Paul Foot
• Private Eye
• The Oldie

External links

• Richard Ingrams interview
• The Oldie