Dylan Jones, former GQ and Evening Standard editor on culture, politics, and the art of staying slightly removed

Welcome to Peter York's Culture Wars House Party.  In this episode, I’m joined by Dylan Jones—a defining figure in British media. He spent over two decades editing GQ and later ran the London Evening Standard, helping shape the national conversation around style, politics, and culture.

 

From ‘literally no experience, and couldn’t actually write very well’, we trace Dylan’s journey from art school maverick to media powerhouse. Expect career advice—why “we’re not looking for people with great ideas”—and sharp anecdotes: why he hired Alastair Campbell and Piers Morgan, threw Russell Brand out of his own awards ceremony, and photographed Melania Trump “like an evil Bond girl, scantily clad with lots of hardware.”

 

In a world of partisan noise, how does Dylan stay “slightly removed” from culture wars? And how is culture evolving now that “a lot of the big players in those worlds removed themselves”? What’s filled the vacuum? And is New York too parochial?

 

Plus: is the suede loafer from Jermyn Street under threat from a chisel-toe slip-on creeping in from another part of the capital?

 

“I went up to him afterwards, before I led him to the door, and said: ‘This is a pact. We're doing something for you. You do something for us. In what part of our agreement is it a good idea to slag off our sponsor?’”

Please do check out my latest book, A Dead Cat On Your Table – available online and in all good book shops.

@peteryork.bsky.social

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