Sir William Robert Ferdinand Mount, 3rd Baronet,

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, the ...

(born 2 July 1939), is a British writer, novelist, and columnist for ''

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'', as well as a political commentator.

Life

Ferdinand Mount, brought up by his parents in the isolated village of

Chitterne Chitterne is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, in the south west of England. The village lies in the middle of Salisbury Plain, about east of the town of Warminster. The Chitterne Brook, a small ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, England, began school at the age of eight. He then attended Greenways and Sunningdale School before

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

, after which he went to

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

. Mount worked at Conservative Party HQ as

head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple ani ...

of the

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during 1982–83, when

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

was Prime Minister and played a significant part in devising the 1983 general election

manifesto A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, or government. A manifesto can accept a previously published opinion or public consensus, but many prominent ...

. Mount is regarded as being on the one-nation or "wet" side of the Conservative Party. He succeeded his uncle, Sir William Mount, in the family title as 3rd

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

in 1993, but prefers to remain known as Ferdinand Mount. For eleven years (1991–2002), he was editor of ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

'', and then became a regular contributor to '' Standpoint'' magazine. He wrote for ''

'', and in 2005 joined ''

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

'' as a commentator. He writes for the ''

London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published bimonthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of Book ...

''. Mount has written novels, including a six-volume novel sequence called ''Chronicle of Modern Twilight'', centring on a low-key character, Gus Cotton; the title alludes to the sequence ''A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight'' by Henry Williamson, and another sequence entitled ''Tales of History and Imagination''. Volume 5, entitled ''Fairness'', was long-listed for the

Man Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

in 2001. Mount serves as chairman of the Friends of the British Library and was elected a

fellow of the Royal Society of Literature 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, the ...

(FRSL) in 1991.

Family

The only son of Robert (Robin) Mount, an army officer and amateur steeplechase jockey, and Lady Julia Pakenham, youngest daughter of the 5th Earl of Longford, KP, Ferdinand inherited the

baronetcy A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

from his uncle Lt-Col. Sir William Mount, Bt, TD, DL, who died in 1993, having had three daughters, including Mary Cameron, JP (b. 1934), mother of

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...

, former

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

(and Conservative Party leader). The Labour politician Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, and his brother, Edward Pakenham, 6th Earl of Longford, were Mount's maternal uncles. His maternal aunts were the writers Lady Mary Clive, Lady Pansy Lamb and Lady Violet Powell, the wife of author

Anthony Powell Anthony Dymoke Powell ( ; 21 December 1905 – 28 March 2000) was an English novelist best known for his 12-volume work '' A Dance to the Music of Time'', published between 1951 and 1975. It is on the list of longest novels in English. Powell ...

. Sir Ferdinand and his wife, Julia ''née'' Lucas, live in

Islington Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...

, London; he and Lady Mount have three surviving children, William (b. 1969 and

heir apparent An heir apparent is a person who is first in the order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person. A person who is first in the current order of succession but could be displaced by the birth of a more e ...

to the

title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify their generation, official position, military rank, professional or academic qualification, or nobility. In some languages, titles may be ins ...

), Harry (b. 1971, a journalist) and Mary (b. 1972, an editor who is married to Indian writer Pankaj Mishra).

Works

Fiction

* ''Very Like a Whale'' (1967) * ''The Clique'' (1978) * ''The Practice of Liberty'' (1986) * ''The Condor's Head'' (2007) * ''Making Nice'' (2021)

''A Chronicle of Modern Twilight''

* ''The Man Who Rode Ampersand'' (1975) * ''The Selkirk Strip'' (1987) * ''Of Love and Asthma'' (1991), winner of the

Hawthornden Prize The Hawthornden Prize is a British literary award given annually to a British, Irish or British-based author for a work of "imaginative literature" – including poetry, novels, history, biography and creative non-fiction – published in the pre ...

1992 * ''The Liquidator'' (1995) * ''Fairness'' (2001) * ''Heads You Win'' (2004)

''Tales of History and Imagination''

* ''Umbrella: A Pacific Tale'' (1994) * ''Jem (and Sam): A Revenger's Tale'' (1999)

Non-fiction

* ''The Theatre of Politics'' (1972) * ''The Subversive Family: An Alternative History of Love and Marriage'' (1982) * ''Communism: A Times Literary Supplement Companion'' (1992), editor * ''The British Constitution Now: Recovery or Decline?'' (1992) * ''The Recovery of the Constitution'' (Sovereignty Lectures) (1992) * ''Mind the Gap: Class in Britain Now'' (2004) * ''Private Life 21st Century'' (2006) * ''Cold Cream: My Early Life and Other Mistakes'' (2009), memoir * ''Full Circle: How the Classical World Came Back to Us'' (2010) * ''The New Few: Power and Inequality in Britain Now or A Very British Oligarchy'' (2012) * ''The Tears of the Rajas: Mutiny, Money and Marriage in India 1805–1905'' (2015) * ''English Voices: Lives, Landscapes, Laments'' (2016) * ''Prime Movers: From Pericles to Gandhi'' (2018) * ''Kiss Myself Goodbye: The Many Lives of Aunt Munca'' (2020) * ''Big Caesars and Little Caesars: How they rise and fall - from Julius Caesar to Boris Johnson'' (2023) BaronetUK

References

External links

www.spectator.co.uk

www.burkespeerage.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mount, Ferdinand 1939 births Living people 20th-century English journalists 20th-century English novelists 21st-century English journalists 21st-century English memoirists 21st-century English novelists Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom British male journalists British male novelists Conservative Party (UK) politicians Daily Mail journalists English columnists English newspaper editors Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature London Evening Standard people People educated at Eton College People educated at Greenways School People educated at Sunningdale School People from Islington (district) The Daily Telegraph people The Sunday Times people Writers from the London Borough of Islington Writers from Wiltshire

Ferdinand Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "courage" or "ready, prepared" related to Old High German "to risk, ventu ...