Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine which since 1961 has poked fun at the British establishment and any public figures deemed incompetent, inefficient or corrupt. The magazine has, however, also drawn much criticism from other media outlets and the public at times for both its style and its willingness to print defamatory and controversial stories. Private Eye's long-term popularity and socio-political significance has seen many jokes and miscellanea from its pages enter British popular culture. It also remains one of the UK's best-selling current affairs magazines.
A forerunner to Private Eye was The Salopian, a school magazine edited by Richard Ingrams, Willie Rushton, Christopher Booker and Paul Foot at Shrewsbury School in the mid-1950s. While studying at Oxford University Ingrams and Foot met Peter Usborne (who initially funded the magazine), Andrew Osmond, John Wells and Danae Brook, who also played a part in the magazine's early development. The first editor was Christopher Booker. Willie Rushton both designed its look and contributed cartoons. These early editions were essentially an extension of the original school magazine, and an alternative to Punch, comprising silly jokes and school-boy humour. Eventually, however, the magazine got caught up in the rage for satire and began to build into a small but increasingly successful amateur publication. Within a few years more funding was provided by Nicholas Luard and Peter Cook (who also ran The Establishment, a satirical nightclub) and Private Eye became fully professional. Other key people associated with the magazine during the early years were Auberon Waugh, Claud Cockburn, Barry Fantoni, Gerald Scarfe, Tony Rushton, Patrick Marnham, Candida Betjeman, Christopher Logue (who provided a "True Stories" column, featuring cuttings from the national press) and gossip columnist Nigel Dempster (who wrote extensively for the magazine before he fell out with the editor and other writers). Paul Foot also wrote on politics, local government and corruption.
One of Public Eye's early long-running features was the Australian-inspired 'Barry McKenzie' comic series (written by Barry Humphries and illustrated by Nicholas Garland). It ran between 1964 and 1974.
Editors: Christopher Booker (1961-1963), Richard Ingrams (1962-1986), Ian Hislop (1986-)
Since its inception in 1961 Private Eye has been owned by an eclectic group of people, and officially published through Pressdram Ltd, which was bought as an "off the shelf" company in November 1961 by Peter Cook. It has refrained from publishing the details of its owners, along with credits for editor, writers, designers etc. Patrick Marnham's biography of the magazine, The Private Eye Story (1981), names Peter Cook, however, as the major shareholder, along with smaller shareholdings such as Dirk Bogarde, Jane Asher, and several of key people involved with the founding of the magazine.
A comic strip that follows the adventures of Barry McKenzie, a dinky-di but innocent 'ocker' who resides in the London suburb of Earl's Court with his fellow Australian mates. Their lives are filled with much beer drinking, insulting (and being insulted by) pompous Brits, and the pursuit (largely unsuccessful) of women. Barry Humphries's dialogue, 'rich' in colloquial speech, celebrates all manner of grotesque behaviour and attitudes.
