Harry Mount

Harry Mount (born 1971) is an English author and journalist, since 2009 a frequent contributor to the Daily Mail.^[1]

Biography

He attended the North Bridge House School in London, went on to Westminster School and read Ancient and Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was a member of the Bullingdon Club.^[2] He graduated with a First.^[3]

He received a master's degree in architectural history from the Courtauld Institute and later qualified as a barrister, but failed to secure a tenancy in chambers following his pupillage.^[4] He worked as a leader writer and a New York correspondent at the Daily Telegraph.

He attracted some mild comment in 2004 for refusing to review David Mitchell's widely acclaimed Cloud Atlas for The Sunday Telegraph because he could not finish it, finding it "unreadable."^[5]

His father Sir Ferdinand Mount, Bt., is also a journalist, and was an advisor to Margaret Thatcher. A second cousin o the current British Prime Minister, David Cameron. Harry Mount lives in Kentish Town.

In March 2015 Harry Mount wrote a feature for the Daily Mail incorrectly stating that Emma Thompson's mother was film director Phyllida Lloyd. Her mother is actress Phyllida Law url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2978463/Emma-Thompson-husband-Greg-Wise-sanctimonious-luvvies.html#readerCommentsCommand-message-field

Works

Mount is the author of several books:

• My Brief Career, an account of his pupillage at a barristers' chambers.
• Amo, Amas, Amat ... and All That, published by Hyperion in 2007, was a best-selling popular reference on the Latin language whose title harks back to Sellar and Yeatman's 1066 and All That. Dedicated to his brother (William) and sister (Mary), the book introduced the basics of Latin grammar and combined his own personal memories, Latin references in popular culture, and stories about ancient Rome. In it, he reveals his prep school nickname of "Mons" (Mons, montis m. mountain). Published in the United States as Carpe Diem: Put a Little Latin in Your Life.
• A Lust for Window Sills, a popular guide to British architecture.
• How England Made the English - from Hedgerows to Heathrow, a book about the English character and landscape. Published in May 2012 by Viking.

In June 2013, Bloomsbury published The Wit and Wisdom of Boris Johnson, edited and introduced by Mount.

Mount also edited a collection of Auberon Waugh's journalism entitled Closing the Circle.

References