Ian Hislop
Ian Hislop (1960–) is an English satirist and editor of Private
Eye magazine. His comic and political eye was sharpened at Oxford (we like to think)
Hislop edited the student magazine Passing Wind while at Magdalen College. He interviewed Richard Ingrams – his predecessor as Private Eye editor – and got the job himself at 26. Hislop read English at Oxford, but possibly should have plumped for Law: he is the most sued man in English legal history.
He told Third Way magazine: ‘Satire is the bringing to ridicule of vice, folly and humbug. All the negatives imply a set of positives. Certainly in this country, you only go round saying, “that’s wrong, that’s corrupt” if you have some feeling that it should be better than that. People say, “You satirists attack everything”. Well, we don’t, actually. That’s the whole point.’
