In defence of columnists
There is strain of thought that I see quite a lot among not just the people I follow on Twitter, but a lot of the people I really like, respect and admire. People I know through the quirkier parts of my life usually. This strain is an absolute loathing towards and dismissal of “columnists”.
Now I admit this is kind of a weird time for me to come to the defence of this particular art form. I haven’t read a column for a couple of weeks because they are mostly about the same thing and the same thoughts and I have not really felt engaged. I know this puts me in a minority though. And of course, most people’s weekly column is going to be about the thing uppermost in their mind this week - even if it isn’t uppermost in mine.
Sometimes a moment is not about or for me. This is one of those. It will pass and I will pass through it. We will all talk about something else soon and I will be OK with not having engaged in this moment. I don’t want to. It is not something I feel I am missing out on by disengaging.
Sometimes though I Do want to understand a shared moment better. And this is one of the ways in which I find columnists really useful. Because good writing can illuminate a response to the moment you didn’t know you had. Good writing can put you into sympathy or empathy with a person you completely disagree with (and do so without changing that disagreement). Good writing can change your mind or confirm your thoughts - vague and helpless until that point.
Once in a while (my go-to is always this piece on Woke Capitalism and Cancel Culture by Helen Lewis which I genuinely think triggered so many new thoughts it partly rewired my brain.)
Columnists are usually there to take the personal and generalise from it. This might be a particular incident or experience they have had that week that has triggered some thoughts for them to share with us. That they hope will, in turn, trigger thoughts or reactions in us.
For this to work, generally columnists have to try to lead lives that are either quite interesting or quite well connected. This can feel very annoying. There is a reason why people whose usual job is sweeping in a supermarket is not also being a columnist. Their job is sadly less open to variety. Their gossip less likely to be about the people who run the country. Some columnists have things they know a great deal about and focus on developments, thoughts observations and ideas in those areas. Some are painters of glorious word pictures that amuse and enlighten us regularly.
Not every columnist is to everyone’s taste - and that is perfectly fine. Personally, I love to read Helen Lewis because I largely agree with her but she still makes me think, Steve Richards because I really enjoy thinking about the moments when I don’t agree with him at all, Katy Balls because I know I will be better informed about what the Tory Party is thinking when I do and Marina Hyde because she makes me laugh a lot.
There are plenty of columnists - on the left and the right - that I don’t read or enjoy and that’s fine too. Variety is great. Some things I will love and others will leave me cold but really resonate with someone else. As long as they actually fulfil that function and do, indeed, bring eyeballs and provoke something from a wry smile, a vigorous dissent or a new way of looking at the world then the columnist has done their job.
I can rail against the Richard Littlejohns, Janet Daly’s and Owen Jones of this world all day. I hate their writing and I don’t suppose any of them are a big fan of mine. But the fact of what they do is not the problem. They too have a market and it suits some people to shop in it. That I do not want to read their columns does not mean I do not think that they should have them.
But more than that, I think that columns are an important way of allowing us to think jointly about the world. In the same way that observational humour helps us to build shared experiences so too does observational journalism. It’s important to be able to read someone’s voice and think anew abut something. I genuinely believe that while news is imbibed through the front half of the papers, it is understood through the opinion sections. This is why columns are so often what is shared. It is not the facts that speak to us, but a shared or even opposite reaction to those facts that place them firmly within our moral, political or cultural universe.
I am not a columnist and have never been paid to be one. I wrote an unpaid weekly column for LabourList for a few years while I was also the unpaid Contributing Editor but that came to an end when they appointed a bloke who was not me Editor and I felt - having gone for the job - it would be unfair on him to hang around like a bad smell and on me to continue to give lots of unpaid work to a site that had no progression for me.
I did also once get offered a meeting with an Editor of a national paper about potentially becoming a regular columnist. Sadly, however, this too was not to be. The meeting was pulled and I was told by my champion (the person who had tried to arrange the meeting/column) that it had been decided I was too old. That was at least four years ago - so God knows what they would make of my decrepit old bones now.
The truth is, this is not an unself-interested column. I’m not going to bullshit. I would love to have a paid weekly column. I think it’s a wonderful art form for all the reasons I have already laid out. I think I have a vice to add and a weird and wonderful way of looking at the world. I love this newsletter but have you seen the price of rice lately?! A regular income and a place to add my voice to the gaiety of the nations would be lovely.
But it ain't gonna happen. I am middle aged. I am not particularly well connected. I am annoying and flighty - writing about the theatre one minute, politics the next. Body image and shagging and movies and everything else. I contain multitudes - that’s why I’m still a size 14.
Some who follow the ‘what I have been up to’ section might have noticed that I have placed fewer freelance pieces of late. The truth is multifaceted. But in part, my pitching confidence got a bit knocked at the start of the summer. I pitched a thought I found interesting and worth developing and was told that it just wasn’t a hot enough take (in those words). But I don’t like to read hot takes any more than I want to write them. I want to write about the nuances and grey areas and my slightly skewiff slant on politics. So I haven’t pitched anything for a while, figuring I would get back into it if and when I felt hot enough. We’ll see.
Triggered
I have signed a contract to produce Triggered again at the White Bear Theatre on the 22nd to the 26th of November. It will be going on sale shortly (expect an extra email) so do please come along!
I run a political and communications consultancy called Political Human. Please get in touch if you are looking for political or media consultancy advice, strategic communication and campaign planning, ghostwriting, copywriting, editing, training or coaching.
You can read some lovely things that some of my clients have said here.
What I’ve been up to
I saw the marvellous (5 star) Flashbang at the Lion and Unicorn. A genuinely lovely play about masculinity and coping and that moment that can last years between Lad and Dad.
I also saw the rather good Doctor Faustus at the Southwark Playhouse. A whirl of colour, blood, sex and action (which I wish my Saturday night was but here we are!)
Finally I saw and reviewed Larkin with Women at the Old Red Lion which was not without charm, but I had to work a little hard to unearth it.
A final appeal. This newsletter takes quite a while to think about and write. I know things are really tough all over at the moment, but if you can spare some cash to say you’ve appreciated it, I can’t tell you how much that would mean to me right now.
Questions, comments and arguments are very welcome. Insults will get you summarily blocked on every platform that no longer hosts Donald Trump. I’m at emmaburnell@gmail.com or on Twitter (far too often) at @EmmaBurnell_.