Henry Francis Mount (born 1971) is a British

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

and

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

who is editor of ''

The Oldie ''The Oldie'' is a British monthly magazine written for older people "as a light-hearted alternative to a press obsessed with youth and celebrity", according to its website. The magazine was launched in 1992 by Richard Ingrams, who was its edi ...

'' magazine and a frequent contributor to the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

'' and ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

''.

Early life

Harry Mount was born in 1971. His father, Sir Ferdinand Mount, Bt,

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

, is also a journalist, and was an advisor to Prime Minister

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

. One of his second

cousin Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, " ...

s is the former British prime minister

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...

. Mount was educated at the

North Bridge House School North Bridge House School is a private school located in London for children aged 2 to 18-year-olds. The school has six different locations for different age groups. The Nursery School, in Hampstead on Fitzjohn's Avenue, is for 2 to 4-year-ol ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, followed by

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

, where he was an Honorary Scholar. He then read

Ancient Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian language, Sumerian c ...

and

Modern History The term modern period or modern era (sometimes also called modern history or modern times) is the period of history that succeeds the Middle Ages (which ended approximately 1500 AD). This terminology is a historical periodization that is applie ...

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

, graduating with a

first First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

. At

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

he was a member of the

Bullingdon Club The Bullingdon Club is a private all-male dining club for Oxford University students. It is known for its wealthy members, grand banquets, and bad behaviour, including vandalism of restaurants and students' rooms. The club is known to select it ...

.Lauren Collins
"Young Fogy"
''The New Yorker'', 10 December 2007 Mount pursued

postgraduate studies Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree. The organization and stru ...

Architectural History The history of architecture traces the changes in architecture through various traditions, regions, overarching stylistic trends, and dates. The beginnings of all these traditions is thought to be humans satisfying the very basic need of shelt ...

at the

Courtauld Institute The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...

, receiving an additional MA

degree Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics ...

; he then qualified as a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

, but failed to secure a tenancy in chambers following his pupillage. He also briefly worked as a banker.

Career

Harry Mount is editor of ''

'', a British monthly

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

founded in 1992 by

Richard Ingrams Richard Reid Ingrams (born 19 August 1937 in Chelsea, London, Chelsea, London) is an English journalist, a co-founder and second editor of the British satire, satirical magazine ''Private Eye (magazine), Private Eye'', and founding editor of ' ...

. Ingrams was succeeded in 2014 by

Alexander Chancellor Alexander Surtees Chancellor, CBE (4 January 1940 – 28 January 2017) was a British journalist. Chancellor was educated at Eton College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was the editor of the conservative ''Spectator'' magazine from 1975 to ...

, and Mount took over after Chancellor's death in 2017. Mount has worked as a leader writer and a

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

correspondent for ''

''. and now has a regular column at the same paper. He has written extensively for ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

'' since 2002, and for the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' since 2012. In 2022, he was appointed an Independent Member of the

House of Lords Appointments Commission The House of Lords Appointments Commission is an independent advisory non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom. It has two roles: *to recommend at least two people a year for appointment as non-party-political life peers who sit on the ...

during

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

's final days in office. The appointment was criticized by Labour's deputy leader

Angela Rayner Angela Rayner (' Bowen; born 28 March 1980) is a British politician serving as Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office and Shadow Secretary of State for the Future of Work since 2021. She has been Shad ...

who called it "a display of pure arrogance by Boris Johnson, putting his own leading crony in charge of stopping cronyism in parliament".

Controversy

As a member of the

, Mount enjoyed a certain notoriety after being rolled down a hill in a portable toilet. "It was like coming out of

Dracula ''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking ...

's coffin", he told ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' in 2007. After Mount wrote in ''

'' (2004) lamenting the supposed demise of Classics teaching in the UK, and dismissing the ''

Cambridge Latin Course The Cambridge Latin Course (CLC) is a series of textbooks published by Cambridge University Press, used to teach Latin to secondary school pupils. It provides a grounding in vocabulary, grammar and sense which allows progression through Common ...

'', ''The Spectator'' published a riposte from the Dean of Wadham,

James Morwood James Henry Weldon Morwood (25 November 1943 – 10 September 2017) was an English classicist and author. He taught at Harrow School, where he was Head of Classics,Harrow School Register 2002 8th edition edited by S W Bellringer & published by T ...

, saying: "His denunciation of the ''Cambridge Latin Course'' as 'the evil Latin-for-idiots school textbooks' is blind to the fact that it was this very course which rescued Latin from an apparently terminal decline in the 1960s." Also in 2004, he attracted some mild comment for refusing to review David Mitchell's widely acclaimed ''

Cloud Atlas A cloud atlas is a pictorial key (or an atlas) to the nomenclature of clouds. Early cloud atlases were an important element in the training of meteorologists and in weather forecasting, and the author of a 1923 atlas stated that "increasing use ...

'' for''

The Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', kn ...

'' because he could not finish it, finding it "unreadable". The Classical theme recurred in 2007 with the publication of Mount's

best-seller A bestseller is a book or other media noted for its top selling status, with bestseller lists published by newspapers, magazines, and book store chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and specialties (novel, nonfiction book, cookb ...

, ''Amo, Amas, Amat ... and All That''. Although this book repeated his ridicule of the education system, it was his exposure of the elitist implications of the study of Latin which “caused a measure of class controversy in the U.K." "Class war with classicists" was the headline in ''Spectator Australia'' after Mount wrote a ''Telegraph'' article in 2015 saying classics exams had been dumbed down. Mount detailed the abuse he received, including: "A classics student at King’s College London called me an 'antediluvian ape'. A classics teacher at Durham Sixth Form Centre predicted my next book would be 'bowel-achingly derivative'." Mount fought back with: "The classics trolls instantly associate any dumbing down suggestions with far-right fogeyish snobbishness."

Personal life

Mount lives in

Kentish Town Kentish Town is an area of northwest London, England in the London Borough of Camden, immediately north of Camden Town. Less than four miles north of central London, Kentish Town has good transport connections and is situated close to the ope ...

, north London.

Works

Mount is the author of several books: * ''My Brief Career'', an account of his

pupillage A pupillage, in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Kenya, Malaysia, Pakistan and Hong Kong, is the final, vocational stage of training for those wishing to become practising barristers. Pupillage is similar to an apprenticeship, during which bar ...

at a

s' chambers. * ''Amo, Amas, Amat ... and All That'', published by Hyperion in 2007, was a best-selling popular reference on the

Latin language Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

whose title harks back to

Sellar Sellar is a surname, and may refer to: * Alexander Craig Sellar (1835 – 1890), Scottish lawyer and Liberal politician * David Sellar (1941 – 2019), Scottish solicitor and officer of arms * George Sellar (1850 – 1889), Scottish recipient of ...

and Yeatman's ''

1066 and All That ''1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England, Comprising All the Parts You Can Remember, Including 103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings and 2 Genuine Dates'' is a tongue-in-cheek reworking of the history of England. Written by W. C. Sellar and R. J ...

''. Dedicated to his brother (William) and sister (Mary), the book introduced the basics of Latin grammar and combined his own personal memories, Latin references in popular culture, and stories about

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...

. In it, he reveals his prep school nickname of "''Mons''" (''Mons, montis'' m. mountain). Published in the United States as ''Carpe Diem: Put a Little Latin in Your Life''. * ''A Lust for Window Sills'', a popular guide to British architecture. * ''How England Made the English – from Hedgerows to Heathrow'', a book about the English character and landscape. Published in May 2012 by Viking. * ''Harry's Mount's Odyssey: Ancient Greece in the Footsteps of Odysseus'

Published by Bloomsbury in 2015. * ''The King and I: How Elvis Shaped My Life'' (Kindle Single, 2017) * ''Summer Madness: How Brexit Split the Tories, Destroyed Labour and Divided the Country'' (Biteback, 2017) In June 2013, Bloomsbury published ''The Wit and Wisdom of

'', edited and introduced by Mount. Mount also edited a collection of

Auberon Waugh Auberon Alexander Waugh (17 November 1939 – 16 January 2001) was an English journalist and novelist, and eldest son of the novelist Evelyn Waugh. He was widely known by his nickname "Bron". After a traditional classical education at Downside ...

's journalism entitled ''Closing the Circle''.

References

External links

''Burke's Peerage & Baronetage online''

Harry Mount – The Telegraph
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mount, Harry 1971 births Living people People from Lambeth Journalists from London People educated at Westminster School, London Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Alumni of the Courtauld Institute of Art British male journalists Linguistics writers 21st-century British writers Daily Mail journalists The Daily Telegraph people

Harry Harry may refer to: TV shows * ''Harry'' (American TV series), a 1987 American comedy series starring Alan Arkin * ''Harry'' (British TV series), a 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons * ''Harry'' (talk show), a 2016 American daytime talk show ...

People educated at North Bridge House School Younger sons of baronets Bullingdon Club members