Harold Evans died on September 23rd
ON THAT DAY in 1981 when he first sat at the pinnacle of British journalism, the editor’s desk at the Times, and wrote his first policy editorial, Harold Evans heard Abraham Lincoln’s voice in his ear. In 1861 the president had said he knew of nothing more powerful than the Times, “except perhaps the Mississippi”.
Now the legendary paper was his to do what he liked with. He could remake it, relaunch it, liven it up, pouring all his wiry energy into it. No one was better suited or better placed. Over a 14-year stint at the Sunday Times he had turned a staid, class-bound broadsheet into a compelling, dramatic newspaper with—a first for Britain—a glossy colour magazine. He had also run bold, eye-catching, risky campaigns. The paper had unmasked Kim Philby as a Soviet spy, braving the fury of the intelligence services. After Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972 he had sent his own team to Northern Ireland to uncover abuses by British soldiers, second-guessing the government inquiry. He challenged the oil companies that illegally supplied the apartheid regime in Rhodesia, and in 1975 published the diaries of Richard Crossman, a former Labour minister, in defiance of the Official Secrets Act. Most famously, he fought for eight years for proper compensation for children...