Levin’s mighty pen
From Neil Swindells
Sir: Can there be anything sadder than Elisabeth Anderson’s Diary news (18 June) that Bernard Levin is to be remembered with a flat stone? Flat? I was a humble subeditor on the Daily Mail when Bernard would sweep into the office, in a splendid operatic cloak, to deliver his theatre reviews (always concise, always beautifully constructed). I was also the unfortunate subeditor on the night that Bernard decid ed that he would prove that, with the judicious use of the semi-colon, an opening paragraph could extend to anything he wanted. This was in the days when the opening paragraph was set in a larger type than those that followed.
Result: Bernard’s introduction swallowed up all the space allowed for his review, leaving no room at all for whatever followed. How we solved this problem I can’t remember: probably the use of descending point sizes that became a vogue around that time in Fleet Street. Whatever, Bernard still turned up with his magnum of champagne specifically ‘for the subeditors’ that Christmas.
Flat? Not Bernard Levin!
Neil Swindells By email
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