Rather creaking omnibus

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33455, 9 February 1974, Page 7

Rather creaking omnibus

The Guardian Omnibus, 1821-1971. Edited by David Ayerst. Collins. 768 pp. Old newspapers are useful for wrapping vegetables and fried fish. Occasionally, they are also useful to a dull kind of political historian who is searching for public opinion. There is, however, no reason for re-printing more than 700 pages of old news. Most of the selections are political, and give the reader less information than any of a dozen popular histories of Britain. There would be some excuse for this book if it contained examples of fine prose, but most of the selections are written in humdrum journalese, suitable for reporting current events, but hardly memorable. The reader is also offered fragments of old editorials which demonstrate that men like L. T. Hobhouse had their hearts in the right place, but also that moral earnestness can be dull and ineffective. The editor of this book has selected the material in an eccentric fashion. The first 78 years of the “Guardian” receive 205 pages and the next 72 years receive 549 pages. No explanation is offered for this lack of balance. More seriously, the selection does not dwell enough on the north of England. A reader would hardlv suspect that for most of its career the “Guardian” was not a London paper. It is possible that David Ayerst could have explained this, and much else, if his introduction had not been a mere five pages.