The latest edition of Spear’s arrives in unique and uncertain circumstances. Wherever you’re reading this edition – we hope it inspires, informs and entertains
I think it’s fair to say that there’s been enough history already in the first 20 years of the 21st century – what with 9/11, the financial crisis and now Covid-19. Not since Spanish flu, now believed to have originated in Kansas from poultry and pigs, have we seen its like.
Here at Spear’s our first reaction was to begin rethinking the edition we were working on – with small changes rapidly giving way to major revisions as the scale of the matter presented itself.
Next we began working from home – not without its challenges, but it’s impressive what you can achieve. Therefore I hope that wherever you’re reading this edition – either in print or online in some fashion – it continues to inform, inspire and entertain.
Related
From our cover story – to which I am grateful to Jim O’Neill in particular for his contribution – to our other Covid-19 commentary to be found from our columnists Matthew Goodwin, Robert Amsterdam, Annamaria Koerling and Jason Cowley, and also from Alessandro Tomé, Nick Foulkes, Sam Leith and Lucia van der Post, I am grateful.
As you will see from the cover story and our leader, we believe the Covid-19 outbreak will be transformative for the world and for Spear’s readers. This crisis will change the Thatcherite/Reagan-era settlement under which this country and much of the West have lived for four decades. It will loosen voices everywhere to address injustices as they perceive them. Let us only hope it is not like living to see the end of Tsarist Russia in 1917.
The crisis is also being transformative for newspapers and magazines such as Spear’s which are suffering from falls in advertising revenues. With that in mind, I would like to thank all the commercial partners who stayed with us in this edition: in the midst of this crisis it’s more important than ever that magazines such as Spear’s talk to their readers about what is important, so I hope, dear readers, that you might reward these brands with your custom.
On a non-Covid-19 note, this issue also features an interview with Jeannette Ho, who talks about her grand ideas for the Raffles Hotel brand; an investigation into the ‘world’s first superyacht’ as well as a profile of the inimitable Baroness Shackleton by Edwin Smith – quite possibly the greatest family lawyer of all time. Speaking of family law, this issue presents our selection of the leading solicitors and barristers in the trade today which are profiled in our index. Elsewhere, Hannah Rothschild pens our Diary, Nick Leeson is our Midas and there’s plenty more else besides.
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Finally, I would like to thank in particular my editorial team, without whom this edition would not have seen the light: Edwin, Vicky, Cath, Simon, Rasika, Arun and Anna, thank you for striving to make this issue something of which we can all be proud. Thank you also to our house photographer, David Harrison, who has taken some astonishing photographs during the past 18 editions of Spear’s of which I have had the privilege and pleasure of editing.
Journalism, they say, is the first draft of history, so when history is this serious we need good-quality journalism more than ever.
The latest edition of Spear’s is out this week. To buy a copy and subscribe, click here
