Charles Mark Edward Boxer (19 May 1931 – 20 July 1988) was a British magazine editor and social observer, and a political cartoonist and graphic portrait artist working under the pen-name ‘Marc’.
Education
Boxer was educated at Berkhamsted School, an independent school for boys in Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire. He then attended King's College, Cambridge, where in 1952 he became editor of the student magazine '' Granta''.
During this period, the magazine published a poem deemed by the University authorities to be blasphemous. The Vice-Chancellor demanded Boxer be sent down, the first student since
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achie ...
to receive such a sentence for this offence (although Shelley studied at Oxford). E.M. Forster spoke in his defence. His college succeeded in reducing the sentence to a week's rustication during May Week, which would mean that he missed the May Ball. The authorities forgot, however, that May Balls go on into the early hours and, on the stroke of midnight during the Ball, Boxer made a triumphant return.
Life and career
Editor
After his graduation, Boxer became editor of the small magazine ''
Lilliput Lilliput may refer to:
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* Lilliput (townland), a townland in County Westmeath, Ireland
* Lilliput, Dorset, a district in the town of Poole in Dorset, United Kingdom
* Lilliput Glacier, the smallest named glacier in the Sierra Nevada of C ...
John Mortimer
Sir John Clifford Mortimer (21 April 1923 – 16 January 2009) was a British barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author. He is best known for novels about a barrister named Horace Rumpole.
Early life
Mortimer was born in Hampstead, London, ...
.
In 1965, Boxer left '' The Sunday Times'' but remained within the Thomson Organization, then owners of ''The Sunday Times'', to relaunch the ailing '' Tatler'' under a new title of ''London Life''. When that title folded, he returned to ''The Sunday Times'' in a reduced role, which gave him time to develop his work as a cartoonist.
After a brief period as a book publisher at Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Boxer accepted the editorship of the revived '' Tatler'' at
Condé Nast Publications
Condé is a French place name and personal name. It is ultimately derived from a Celtic word, "Condate", meaning "confluence" (of two rivers) - from which was derived the Romanised form "Condatum", in use during the Roman period, and thence to t ...
in 1983, for which he won the PA Editor of the Year award in 1986. At the time of his death, he was Editor-in-Chief of ''Tatler'', and Editorial Director of
Condé Nast Publications
Condé is a French place name and personal name. It is ultimately derived from a Celtic word, "Condate", meaning "confluence" (of two rivers) - from which was derived the Romanised form "Condatum", in use during the Roman period, and thence to t ...
in the UK.
Boxer's influence as an editor is commemorated in the annual Mark Boxer Award, presented by the British Society of Magazine Editors for an outstanding contribution to magazine publishing in the UK.
Cartoonist
Drawing under the pen-name 'Marc', Boxer first came to prominence with a regular cartoon Life and Times in NW1, which ran in '' The Listener'' from 1968. This satirised the lifestyles of NW1 trendies, as typified in his characters Simon and Joanna Stringalong.
Boxer followed this with the production of a long series of pocket cartoons, single frame social commentaries which were published first in '' The Times'', and subsequently in '' The Guardian''. These were created in collaboration with the humorist George Melly, and led many to consider him the successor to Osbert Lancaster.
Profile artist
Boxer's profile drawings of celebrated personalities, usually commissioned to accompany a feature profile article, appeared in the '' New Statesman'' between 1970 and 1978, and in '' The Observer'' between 1982 and 1987. Many are now in the archives of the
National Portrait Gallery (London)
The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...
. They also appeared as illustrations to mock-heroic poems written by
Clive James
Clive James (born Vivian Leopold James; 7 October 1939 – 24 November 2019) was an Australian critic, journalist, broadcaster, writer and lyricist who lived and worked in the United Kingdom from 1962 until his death in 2019.Anthony Powell’s 12-volume novel, ''A Dance to the Music of Time''.
Personal life
Boxer's first marriage was to Lady Arabella Stuart, youngest daughter of the eighteenth
Earl of Moray
The title Earl of Moray, Mormaer of Moray or King of Moray was originally held by the rulers of the Province of Moray, which existed from the 10th century with varying degrees of independence from the Kingdom of Alba to the south. Until 1130 th ...
, with whom he had two children. As Arabella Boxer, she became a successful cookery writer, after Boxer designed her first book, ''First Slice Your Cookbook'', in 1964. They later divorced. His second marriage was to newsreader Anna Ford, with whom he had two daughters, Kate and Claire.
Boxer died of a brain tumour at home in Brentford, Hounslow, Greater London, aged 57.
References
''The Collected and Recollected Marc'', Fourth Estate 1993,