Editorial director Nick Foulkes revels in the contrary, open-minded attitude of Finch’s Quarterly Review and its embracing – even pioneering – of the new age of the amateur

Finch’s Quarterly Review prides itself on being counterintuitive. In fact, you might say that contrapuntalism is our watchword. We like being different. Take the economic crisis. Almost everywhere else on what used to be known as Fleet Street there are layoffs as sub-editors and highly paid columnists alike are being given the bullet… but not at Finch Towers. It would appear that we are committed to high standards of journalism and that we are investing in people – at least, I think that those are the appropriate platitudes to mouth when embarking on the hiring spree, the orgy of recruitment in which our esteemed proprietor has just indulged.

One might have thought that with all this specialist talent coming on to the market we could have had the pick of British journalism. However, that would not be the FQR way. Instead, we have turned to the pages of the Almanach de Gotha and Illustrated International Litigator Magazine. From the former we have recruited our new features editor, Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis. Elisabeth is a princess, and anyone who was a student of the choicest chocolate dust on the froth atop the cappuccino of café society in the 1980s will remember her mother, Gloria TNT. However, what impressed the management of FQR was not so much her background as her CV, on which she spelt her own name in two different ways. Genius. More prosaic minds might have conducted a simple search on Her Majesty’s Internet or, indeed, glanced at their own passports to arrive at a consensus… but not Elisabeth. She was sufficiently receptive to new ideas as to entertain an alternative spelling for own name. And it is exactly this dialectic open-mindedness that is one of the chief tenets of what we at FQR in our more sententious moments refer to as our editorial policy.

Our new managing editor, Felicity “Flea” Harrison, came to us seeking a rest from the enervating and lively atmosphere of Jurisprudence Daily, or whatever it was called. I have always had the most profound respect for the law. You might even call me a frustrated hierophant in the service of the Grecian goddess Themis. After all, what other vocation permits its adherents to dress up in robes and wigs and then invite each other to “approach the bar”? And I think that all of us can see the fun in getting into fancy dress in order to stand up and utter the words “Objection, m’lud!” – and get paid for doing so.

As well as her grasp of Roman and shipping law, what I like about Flea is her work ethic. No sooner had she landed her job at FQR than she took an extended five- or six-week holiday touring the Antipodes, so confident was she that we could cobble together an issue in her absence.

What these two young, clever and beautiful women embody is the spirit of the amateur. And it is the spirit of the amateur – along with our dialecticism, our open-mindedness, our counterintuitive contrapuntalism, our commitment to high standards of journalism etc etc etc – which lies at the heart of the FQR vision (if, of course, vision can be said to have a heart, which I doubt).

For too long the soi-disant professionals have been in charge – and look where it has got us. We are now entering the age of the amateur, the Corinthian and the dilettante. The signs are unmistakable. Even that most revered and rock-like of institutions Rolex has seen fit to part company with its CEO, a man who had succeeded his father, who in turn had succeeded the firm’s founder. For a while I toyed with the idea of putting myself forward for this job… I mean, how hard can it be?

Then again, I could give the old financial-services sector a bit of whirl. After all, I could hardly do worse than that American chap Madoff, a man in whom all those clever professionals such as Nicola Horlick and Arpad Busson saw fit to trust and who repaid that trust by creating a Northern Rock for rich people.

But somehow I don’t think the world of high finance is quite ready for me. For a start, standards of dress these days are simply dire. If I had my way, I would insist that all capitalists light their cigars with 1,000 Swiss Franc notes, wear top hats, frock coats, detachable collars, striped trousers and be driven to lunch in Rolls-Royces – that way, at least the lynch mobs would know who to string up.

To tell you the truth, FQR is not interested in selling you any get-rich-quick schemes; we don’t have the heart for it. However, we have probably got a couple of old Rolexes you could buy…

Would you like to comment on this article?

You must be logged in to post a comment.