We made a magazine

We made a magazine

Coming up at Backstory

BACK IN 2015 — when Donald Trump had just announced his joke candidacy, David Cameron was preparing to settle the European question for a generation and the Wuhan wet market was still doing a roaring trade — I spent the summer working at The Washington Post. 

For a journo geek and West Wing aficionado like me, it was heaven: hammering out my copy in the office where Woodward and Bernstein broke Watergate, belonging to a reporting unit they actually called “Team America”, and the arduous assignment of covering a presidential vacation. 

Perhaps the most striking thing, though, was the gulf between the British and American approaches to journalism. This was neatly captured when one of my editors from the Daily Telegraph flew over from London to visit. I was a fly on the wall when he told a senior editor at the Post he was surprised such-and-such story had only made page 3 of that day’s paper, rather than the front page. “I wanted it on the front,” the American editor agreed. “But when the copy came in, it wasn’t right.”

Over a debrief coffee afterwards, his British counterpart was agog: “If the copy isn’t good enough, you make it good enough!”

The rigour and professionalism of American hacks trumped anything I ever saw this side of the Pond. Even so, I can’t help finding something admirable, irresistible even, in that rough-and-ready, copy-and-paste, seat-of-the-pants, five-minutes-to-deadline British attitude. And it’s with that same spirit that we’ve approached the first issue of our very own Backstory magazine, which will be on sale at the end of September to coincide with our first anniversary and which you can pre-order now to be posted anywhere in the UK, for a humble £2.95:

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It’s been a joy to commission some of our favourite contemporary writers — Jessica Andrews, Alice Winn, Colin Walsh, Tom Crewe — and to mix their words with some reliable pizzazz from old friends on Fleet Street.

In 48 rough-and-ready pages, we’ve tried to distil the essence of Backstory itself. We hope it’s approachable, lively, informative – and just a little bit snarky. 

You’ll find Colin Walsh — whose dark and twisty debut novel, Kala, is a firm Backstory favourite — on his fellow New Irish Writers. Jessica Andrews gives us the backstory on why her writing centres the female body. Somehow Cal Flyn manages in only 380 words to sum up not only her favourite bookshop but also the character of the island on which she lives: it’s a gem.

My favourite pieces are the naughty ones, obviously. A debut novelist spills the beans on how much her book actually earned. A book-to-TV scout shares his secret diary. And have you ever imagined what would happen if Alan Bennett and Bram Stoker went on a blind date? The very cheeky Bo Franklin has the answer.

I’d forgotten how much fun it is to play with words. Chop them up, toss them about, see what sizzles. It’s only 18 months since I left behind the newsroom for good, but far longer since I had unquestioned power over what makes the cover. Putting together this mag has brought back memories of working on my uni and school mags, slapping the headmaster’s salary in size 72 font on the front page in the name of press freedom.

Likewise, the most fun with this Backstory mag was the scissors and glue bit: perching at the Backstory bar perilously close to deadline with my colleagues Rory and Amy, hearing them snort, guffaw and read aloud any gems as they marked up the proofs in different coloured pencils.

So, stick in a pre-order online now, or pop in from 30th September and pick it up in the shop. Best enjoyed at our bar, glass of Chin Chin in hand.

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