Broadcasting to the ‘last outpost of the British Empire’: Anthony Lejeune, the man behind the SABC's English Service London Letter (1965–1995)

Abstract

Anthony Lejeune, the son of an acclaimed British film critic, was born in 1928 and after attending the University of Oxford made his career as a London-based professional journalist, writing for the weekly intellectual journal Time and Tide and later for the Daily Express among others. He also wrote detective novels and in later life penned some very readable histories of the gentlemen's clubs of London. A chance meeting in London in the mid-1960s with Dewar McCormack of the English Service of the SABC led to Lejeune beginning to broadcast a weekly radio London Letter to South Africa every Sunday evening after the six o'clock news bulletin. London Letter was to last for nearly 30 years. The article chronicles Lejeune's career and looks at the background to the London Letter, exploring its contents and evaluating the nature of Lejeune's conservatism and his personal connections with much of the subject matter which he discussed.

Keywords:

• Anthony Lejeune
• C.A. Lejeune
• London Letter
• radio
• SABC

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Donal P. McCracken

Donal P. McCracken is Senior Professor of History at the Centre for Communication, Media and Society, Howard College, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. [email protected]