Peter Simple (columnist)
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Michael Wharton (19 April 1913 – 23 January 2006) was a British
newspaper columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the form of a short essay ...
who wrote under the pseudonym Peter Simple in the British ''
Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...
''. He began work on the "Way of the World" column with illustrator
Michael ffolkes Michael ffolkes (6 June 1925 – 18 October 1988), born Brian Davis, was a British illustrator and cartoonist most famous for his work on the Peter Simple column in ''The Daily Telegraph''. He also worked for ''Punch'' and ''Playboy''. Li ...
three times a week in early 1957, and wrote the column four times a week for a lengthy period ending in 1987. On 13 May 1990 he began a weekly ''Peter Simple'' column in 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 ...
'', before returning to the ''Daily Telegraph'' as a weekly columnist on 8 March 1996. He remained there until his death, aged 92, in 2006, his last column appearing on 20 January 2006.


Life and career

Wharton was born as Michael Bernhard Nathan, the son of a businessman of
German-Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...
origin, at Shipley, in the
West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...
("Wharton" was the maiden name of his mother). Wharton was educated at
Bradford Grammar School Bradford Grammar School (BGS) is a co-educational independent day school located in Frizinghall, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Entrance is by examination, except for the sixth form, where admission is based on GCSE results. The school ...
and
Lincoln College, Oxford Lincoln College (formally, The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, the ...
. His career at Oxford was undistinguished, partly because he spent his time writing ''Sheldrake'', a novel that had little success when published in 1958. After Oxford, Wharton served in the
Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...
from 1940 to 1946, rising to the rank of Major (acting Lieutenant-Colonel), "but", in his own words, "only in Intelligence". He then worked for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
as a producer and scriptwriter, but left in 1956. His two volumes of quasi-autobiography, ''The Missing Will'' and ''A Dubious Codicil'', combined his fantasy world with the mundane reality of the life as a jobbing journalist. Wharton married three times. His daughter and literary executor, Jane Wharton, works as a psychotherapist.


Wharton's characters

The column satirised what Wharton saw as modern, fashionable ideas, and readers often claimed to recognise his invented characters in real people. Not fictional was the column's presiding spirit,
Colonel Sibthorp Charles de Laet Waldo Sibthorp (14 February 1783 – 14 December 1855), popularly known as Colonel Sibthorp, was a widely caricatured British Ultra-Tory politician in the early 19th century. He sat as a Member of Parliament for Lincoln from 1826 ...
, an eccentric and reactionary Victorian Member of Parliament, about whom Wharton made a BBC radio documentary in 1954 and then a "centenary celebration" the following year.


Controversy

"Fulminator", in his ''
Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...
'' blog, said of Wharton:
Wharton’s political views were so far removed from the mainstream that they’re practically unclassifiable – a feudalist and a rabid reactionary, certainly (he invented the fictitious Feudal and Reactionary Herald). He hated “Progress”, loathed communism and socialism with a passion, and wasn’t keen on capitalism or money-grubbing in general.
Writing in ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' J. W. M. Thompson suggested:
As befitted a satirist who was wounded by the changes he observed in his country, he had a profound attachment to the land and a true Tory's nostalgia for an idealised vision of its past.
Wharton consistently criticised and ridiculed what he described as the "race relations industry", and one of his most famous comic creations was the "prejudometer", an anti-racist instrument that supplied readings in prejudons, the "internationally recognised scientific unit of racial prejudice", when pointed at a suspected racist. Concerned individuals could even point the prejudometer at themselves:
At 3.6 degrees on the Alibhai-Brown scale, it sets off a shrill scream that will not stop until you've pulled yourself together with a well-chosen anti-racist slogan.
Wharton was accused in his ''
Times Time is the continued sequence of existence and events, and a fundamental quantity of measuring systems. Time or times may also refer to: Temporal measurement * Time in physics, defined by its measurement * Time standard, civil time specific ...
'' obituary of "sometimes veer nginto the area of straightforward racism" and of being "prone to anti-semitic innuendo" for such passages as this:
Almost single-handed,
Ariel Sharon Ariel Sharon (; ; ; also known by his diminutive Arik, , born Ariel Scheinermann, ; 26 February 1928 – 11 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006. S ...
may have ended the Jews' virtual immunity from hostile criticism that
Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
's persecution assured for more than 50 years. Anti-semitism is stirring. So far it may be only the so-called "anti-semitism" of people who think of the immense influence the Jews have in the world, and wonder whether it is always, everywhere and in every way an influence for good. First that; but later, for worse, the real thing.
However the quote occurs in a context of a passage gleefully satirising the Boycott Israel movement. His obituary in ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' pursued the same thread:
In his comment paragraphs, he aired a conservatism light years to the right of most conservatives, stealing sometimes into fleeting, only half-retracted, laments for the Europe that Hitler's New Order might have created.''The Guardian'' article
/ref>
Michael Wharton held
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
to be a radical, a revolutionary totally opposed to conservative principles.


Related columns

Wharton wrote four columns in a week for the last time from 25–28 August 1987. After Wharton expressed his desire to write less often, ''Way of the World'' was written initially three times a week, and subsequently twice weekly until the spring of 1990, by
Christopher Booker Christopher John Penrice Booker (7 October 1937 – 3 July 2019) was an English journalist and author. He was a founder and first editor of the satirical magazine '' Private Eye'' in 1961. From 1990 onward he was a columnist for ''The Sunday T ...
under the name ''Peter Simple II'', with Wharton continuing to write the column once a week initially on Fridays, but then on Thursdays until 3 May 1990. In 1990 the ''Peter Simple'' column and the ''Way of the World'' column became fully separate entities, and for the next ten years (7 May 1990 – 16 December 2000) the ''Way of the World'' column was written by
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 ...
, who died in January 2001. It was then written by the
satirist This is an incomplete list of writers, cartoonists and others known for involvement in satire – humorous social criticism. They are grouped by era and listed by year of birth. Included is a list of modern satires. Under Contemporary, 1930-1960 ...
Craig Brown until he left the ''Telegraph'' late in 2008. A. N. Wilson began to write a column also under the title ''Peter Simple II'' in ''
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 ...
'' on 26 February 2006, but it did not last long.


See also

*
List of Peter Simple's characters These are Fictional character, characters created by the columnist Michael Wharton, Peter Simple (1913–2006) from 1957 onwards. Some of his characters are based on real people and some real people seem to be based on his characters. A few of the ...


Admirers of Peter Simple

*
Simon Hoggart Simon David Hoggart (26 May 1946 – 5 January 2014) was an English journalist and broadcaster. He wrote on politics for ''The Guardian'', and on wine for ''The Spectator''. Until 2006 he presented ''The News Quiz'' on BBC Radio 4. His journali ...
–
parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democracy, democratic government, governance of a sovereign state, state (or subordinate entity) where the Executive (government), executive derives its democratic legitimacy ...
sketch writer for ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''. * A. N. Wilson – novelist and journalist. *
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 ...
– wrote ''
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 ...
s Way of the World column after Wharton's semi-retirement. *
Alexander Waugh Alexander Evelyn Michael Waugh (born 1963) is an English writer, critic, and journalist. Among other books, he has written ''Fathers and Sons: The Autobiography of a Family'' (2004), about five generations of his own family, and ''The House of Wi ...
– writer and son of Auberon Waugh. *
Kingsley Amis Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social an ...
, who wrote an introduction to ''The Stretchford Chronicles: 25 Years of Peter Simple'' (1980).


Bibliography

* ''The Missing Will'' (1984) (first volume of autobiography) * ''A Dubious Codicil'' (1991) (second volume) * ''Sheldrake'' (Anthony Blond and Allan Wingate, London, 1958) (novel)


Compilations (illustrated by Michael ffolkes)

* ''Way of the World'' (1) (1957) * ''Way of the World'' (2) (1963) * ''Peter Simple in Opposition'' (1965) * ''More of Peter Simple'' (1969) * ''The Thoughts of Peter Simple'' (1971) * ''The World of Peter Simple'' (1973) * ''A Choice of Peter Simple 1973–1975'' (1975) * ''Peter Simple's Way of the World 1975–1977'' (1978) * ''The Stretchford Chronicles: 25 Years of Peter Simple'' (1980) * ''The Best of Peter Simple'' (1984) * ''Far Away is Close at Hand'' (1995) * ''Peter Simple's World'' (1998) * ''Peter Simple's Century'' (1999) * ''Peter Simple's Domain'' (2003)


Notes


External links


Comic fantasy of Michael Wharton comes to a closeObituary in ''The Daily Telegraph''Obituary in ''The Atlantic''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wharton, Michael 1913 births 2006 deaths Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford English male journalists 20th-century English novelists English humorists English satirists English Jews The Daily Telegraph people People educated at Bradford Grammar School English autobiographers Writers from Bradford English male novelists 20th-century English businesspeople 20th-century pseudonymous writers English people of German-Jewish descent