As Charles Darwent observes, the painter John McLean wrote for the Guardian. He was filling in brilliantly for Norbert Lynton, who had left for the Arts Council. I, as arts editor, hoped McLean would take the job permanently. But when he turned up in our offices he brought with him Caroline Tisdall. He had decided, he said, that he couldn’t cope with writing about art and making it too. Caroline stayed as art critic for several years. He fulfilled his ambition, though, as Darwent says, at a heavy financial cost.
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