Ferdinand Mount

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Sir (William Robert) Ferdinand Mount, 3rd Baronet (born 2 July 1939), commonly known as Ferdinand Mount, is a British writer, novelist and columnist for The Sunday Times as well as a political commentator.

Education and career

Mount attended Greenways and Sunningdale School before Eton College after which he went to Christ Church, Oxford. Mount worked at Conservative Party HQ as Head of the Number 10 Policy Unit during 1982–83, when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister[1][2] and played a significant part in devising the 1983 Tory General Election Manifesto.

Sir Ferdinand, as he is formally styled, 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 in 1993, but prefers to remain known as Ferdinand Mount.[3]

For eleven years (1991–2002) he was editor of the Times Literary Supplement,[4] and then became a regular contributor to Standpoint magazine. He wrote for The Sunday Times, and in 2005 joined The Daily Telegraph as a commentator.[4]

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.

Sir Ferdinand serves as Chairman of the Friends of the British Library[5] and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) in 1991.

Family

The only son of Robert Mount and Lady Julia Pakenham, youngest daughter of the 5th Earl of Longford, KP, Ferdinand inherited the baronetcy from his uncle Lt-Col. Sir William Mount, Bt, TD, DL, who died in 1993, having had issue three daughters, including Mrs Mary Cameron, JP (b. 1934), mother of David Cameron, former Prime Minister (and Conservative Party leader).[1][6]

He and his wife, Julia née Lucas, live in Islington; Sir Ferdinand and Lady Mount have three surviving children, William (b. 1969 and heir apparent to the title), Harry (b. 1971, a journalist) and Mary (b. 1972, also an author).

Works

See also

Insignia of Baronet

References

  1. 1 2 Moss, Stephen (19 November 2010). "Lord Young has found that soundbites sometimes bite back". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 December 2010.
  2. ↑ MacLeod, Alexander (1 December 1982). "Mrs. Thatcher sets up her own advisory team". The Christian Science Monitor.
  3. ↑ Mosley, Charles (ed.) (2003). Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 107th edn. London: Burke's Peerage & Gentry Ltd. p. 2801 (MOUNT, Bt). ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
  4. 1 2 Tryhorn, Chris (1 March 2005). "Ferdinand Mount joins Telegraph". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 December 2010.
  5. ↑ www.bl.uk
  6. ↑ Bell, Matthew (28 November 2010). "Still talking turkey". The Independent. Retrieved 11 December 2010.

External links

Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Sir William Mount		 Baronet
 of Wasing
1993— 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
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