John Wilson reassesses the influence of people who helped to make other people well known.

The millionaire editor of The Observer from 1948 to 1975 assembled what one critic called "the most intellectually dazzling stable of writers ever to grace a British newspaper," including George Orwell, Kenneth Tynan, Arthur Koestler and Michael Fravn. Donald Trelford, Anthony Howard and others discuss how the newspaper world Astor worked in compares with today's press.