I had no personal acquaintance with Chancellor, not even the usual telephone or snail-mail exchanges on editorial points; but it was under his editorship that my writing first appeared in a general-interest periodical—as a cover story, in fact, billed above Malcolm Muggeridge (of which I feel a bit ashamed on lèse-majesté principles).
Just for that reason, I remember him with gratitude, and am sorry to hear of his passing.
Chancellor's Spectator was required reading in Britain during those years when managerial socialism transitioned to Margaret Thatcher's version of National Conservatism with bumps and dislocations not unlike the ones we are currently experiencing in the U.S.A.
The magazine had a fine reactionary élan, carried forward by a staff of mostly-young dissidents who sought to recover lost or forgotten truths about human nature and society. (Chancellor was only 37 when he took over the editorship; and I believe it was from the offices of the Spectator that the term "Young Fogey" originated.)
Alexander Chancellor, RIP.
