This article was originally published in the November 2019 issue of Gentleman’s Journal. Subscribe 

It’s been just over a year since Geordie Greig — the former editor of the 

. This was the first change in the hot seat since 1992, when Paul Dacre was appointed — and it has not been entirely without consequence.

Before Greig had even got going, Dacre, in a 

 diary, wrote that ‘any move to reverse’ the 

’s support for Brexit, which, he said, is in its DNA, ‘would be editorial and commercial suicide,’ knowing full well his successor’s Remain leanings.

Then, in October this year, Greig gave an interview over lunch to the 

, and all hell broke loose. (Dacre, in his 26-year reign, had never given another newspaper such a scoop.) In this interview, Greig claimed that 265 advertisers returned to the 

 in his year as editor; a week later, Dacre, now chairman and editor-in-chief of Associated Newspapers, the unit of DMG Media that owns the 

 and MailOnline, exploded in its letters page.

“Admirable chap he may be, but Geordie Greig… is as economic with the actualité as your paper is in reporting matters Brexit,” he wrote. “In fact, far more than that number [of advertisers] left during the same period.” He wasn’t finished, citing his own achievements, including that of the justice for Stephen Lawrence campaign. “As for Mr Greig, I congratulate him on making a solid start as editor… I’m sure he’ll forgive me for suggesting that he (or his PR) defers his next lunch with the 

 until he has notched up a small fraction of those journalists’ achievements.” Greig, a 

 journalist explains, has taken on a full-time PR man, which ‘Dacre would be absolutely appalled by.’

But who is the man now running Britain’s most notorious newspaper? George ‘Geordie’ Greig was born in 1960, the son of Monica Stourton, granddaughter of the 24th Lord Mowbray, Segrave and Stourton, and Sir Carron Greig, a former Scots Guards officer and shipbroker, himself the son of Sir Louis Greig, equerry to the future George VI, and member of the January Club, a group associated with the British Union of Fascists.

One of the Greigs’ four children – his twin sister Laura was a lady-in-waiting to Diana, Princess of Wales – young Geordie was educated at Eton, before reading English at St Peter’s College, Oxford. Graduating, he made his career in local newspapers, before making it to the 

. In 1991, he moved to New York to be US correspondent, before returning to London as literary editor in 1995.

An admirer of the Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope, at school he began writing letters to interesting people – to the artist Francis Bacon, Joanna Lumley, and to sculptor Henry Moore amongst others. His letters to Lucian Freud are the most famous, beginning as a request for interview in the school magazine. When Freud declined, Greig tried again, and again, telling the 

 that he “sort of stalked [Freud]… I twisted my way into getting access to him through a bit of deception, charm and kidnapping.”

His tenacity paid off: after 20 years, he met Freud and in 2013 published 

, a portrait of the artist. That Greig was able to convince the reclusive Freud to talk, wrote a 

 reviewer of the book in 2013, was evidence that the future 

 editor was a “persistent networker and subtle schmoozer capable of loosening the tightest of lips”. In 1995 he married Kathryn Terry, a Texan with whom he has three children: twins Monica and Octavia, 19, and Jasper, 21, 

"Paul Dacre used to shout and swear at people every day, but Geordie Greig is very pleasant to deal with; his approach is much more civilised."

 came calling for Greig, when Nicholas Coleridge, then managing director of its parent company Conde Nast Britain, was searching for a new candidate. In 2008 Greig met Evgeny Lebedev, the son of former KGB agent 

, in a quirk of typical chance and charm.

“Evgeny had been brought to my office when I was editor of 

 by a PR girl who said that he was launching a charity with a Russian called Michael Goo-ba-cheff at Althorp, the childhood home of Princess Diana,” wrote Grieg in the 

 in May 2009. “I said we would not cover the party but instead we would co-host it with them. It was the start of a relationship which I had no idea was going to change my life so totally.”

Soon, the power-broking began in earnest. “After a supper of saki and sushi, Lord Rothmere [the 

 then owner] and I began guarded conversations… over the potential new owners of the 

,” Greig wrote. “The next day Lord Rothermere and I spoke on the phone and I said I would contact the Lebedevs to find out if they might be interested in becoming the new proprietors.”

They were. In February 2009, Grieg was appointed editor of the 

. Having impressed Lord Rothermere, chairman of the Mail group, he was then made editor of the 

 in 2012. There he did a good job, says an editor who has followed Greig’s career with interest. “He began to distinguish the 

Rumours circulated for years as to the date of Paul Dacre’s departure, and when in June 2018 the announcement came that he was to step down in November of that year, the gossip mill rebooted itself.

Greig’s name was thrown around as a contender for Dacre’s predecessor, as was that of 

 had backed Britain remaining in the European Union, came as a surprise to some. “

 readers might be a little confused at the change in direction,” read a report on political website Guido Fawkes.

"David Hockney is pictured having tea in their London home; then they are on holiday with Valentino. His are ‘Gatsby-esque' social circles."

It wasn’t just the politics of the paper that would change. “It’s a very different atmosphere in the office,” says one 

 journalist. “Dacre used to shout and swear at people every day, but Geordie is very pleasant to deal with, his approach is much more civilised.” The impact this has on the newspaper is tangible, says a colleague. “Geordie is much more cautious, he doesn’t want to ruffle feathers, whereas Dacre was happy to upset people, and didn’t socialise much.”

 editor, keeps up his social life; though he declines to participate much in social media, his children show off the spoils of their father’s address book. “David Hockney is pictured having tea in their London home one day; the next they are on holiday with Valentino. His are ‘Gatsby-esque’ social circles,” wrote founding editor of 

 editor. It is all a far cry from Dacre, who was scarcely seen at parties, and, in a rare interview in 2002 said that he tried to ‘ration’ his lunches with politicians.

One society fixture with an address book to rival Greig’s analyses their respective styles. “If Paul Dacre went to a party there would be three people he knew there and he would talk to them all evening. If Geordie went to a party he’d arrive with a group of people he knew and quite liked, and the rest of the evening he’d spend looking over his shoulder for more interesting people to talk to.”

But why shouldn’t Greig be sociable? Some wonder whether too many close social connections are an impediment to good editing of a newspaper. Equally, one needs to be able to pull strings.

As journalists, it is not uncommon for people to mock-creep around you in polite conversation, saying ‘watch it, he’s a journalist,’ as if every tale of daily life could be front page news. “Most people in the society world knew him as a 

 man,” says someone who would know. “They thought Geordie was great fun but careful what you say in front of him because it might appear in a newspaper.” He is, says a fellow Old Etonian Society fixture, “friendly, but as social-climbing as his professional success and appearance would suggest. I’m sure he spends more time buttering people up than anything else, but I have never seen him stirring things up.”

On one hand, having an editor who knows everyone is an advantage. A senior lobby journalist explains that “people I know in the newsroom say that they were worried about Geordie not allowing them to write about certain people, but what they have found is that on some occasions, he has made the calls for them.” On the other hand, there is such a thing as too close. “There is no one like him in Britain,” says a colleague. “Apart from [

 editor] Dylan Jones perhaps, in terms of someone who, in truth, has sucked up to everyone all his career.” In 2015, Nicholas Coleridge described Greig as “50 per cent courtier, 50 per cent old-school hack.”

"Dacre feels that there is a liberal elite that sneer at him, and Geordie represents that. He is total anathema to him."

On the surface, Notting Hill resident Greig is an odd choice for the 

. “He’s educated liberal elite,” says a colleague. “He’s not really suited to the 

 at all,” says another. “Dacre was a news man all his career, whereas Geordie was at 

,” says one, more disparagingly. “The whole point of 

 is to get to know people. By definition, the 

 is the opposite.” The two men couldn’t be more different. Greig is said to ‘loathe Dacre’, and, says a newspaper editor, “Dacre feels that there is a liberal elite that sneer at him, and Geordie represents that. He is total anathema to him.”

It is said that Greig was brought in to stabilise the 

, following the end of Dacre’s reign, during which, says a senior Fleet Street hack, “he became very obsessive and aggressive, and intolerant of any view but his own. The paper just began to feel a bit weird.” The Rothermeres, not hard Brexiters, were said to have felt uncomfortable with the paper’s lines, though, says a former editor, “I think they were genuinely stuck between an editor who was commercially successful but who was bringing out a paper that they really disliked in many ways.” By comparison, says one editor, while most readers won’t have noticed much of a difference, “Geordie’s paper is much less tub-thumping and dogmatic.” Since his arrival, Greig hasn’t cleared out the 

 newsroom and filled it with his favourites – though some, including long-standing sketch writer Quentin Letts, have left. But naturally, he has attempted to poach big names from other papers.

Jeremy Clarkson, who has a column with the 

, is said to be one such figure. “I’ve heard that Geordie tried to poach Clarkson, but he was so against the idea that he told the 

 he wanted his salary cut by £5 so he could say he took a pay cut to stay,” says a 

 journalist. “There is no specific gang of ‘Greiggites'”, says a 

 journalist. “He doesn’t have a team that are loyal to him and that have moved with him, whereas Dacre has still got a gang of people around him.”

For all the criticisms of Dacre’s reign – the shouting, the swearing, the long hours – no one could deny that he worked hard. His predecessor has a different attitude altogether, says a 

 journalist who has worked for both of them. “Dacre used to completely dominate any conferences he was at, whereas Geordie just sits there and doesn’t say much, he’s quite distant. He is far more interested in… well, what is he interested in?” But as one 

 journalist said last year, “Geordie is the most diligent, hands-on, micro-detail-minded editor there is… It would not be at all unusual to get 20 or more emails a day from him. He is consumed by his job. And he also happens to be a perfectly decent person.”

Greig declined to comment for this article, but, true to form, did so politely, telephoning the author and making suggestions about who might be willing to chat about him. As one Fleet Street editor put it: “the trouble with Geordie is that he wants to be liked too much.”

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