Ferdinand Mount

Sir (William Robert) Ferdinand Mount, 3rd Baronet (born 2 July 1939), commonly known as Ferdinand Mount, is a British writer, novelist and columnist for The Sunday Times as well as a political commentator.

Education and career

Mount attended Greenways and Sunningdale School before Eton College after which he went up to Christ Church, Oxford. Mount worked at Conservative Party HQ as Head of the Number 10 Policy Unit during 1982–83, when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister and played a significant part in devising the 1983 Tory General Election Manifesto.

Sir Ferdinand, as he is formally styled, is regarded as being on the One Nation or 'Wet' side of the Conservative Party: he succeeded his uncle, Sir William Mount, in the family title as 3rd baronet in 1993, but prefers to remain known as Ferdinand Mount.

For eleven years (1991–2002) he was editor of The Times Literary Supplement, and then became a regular contributor to Standpoint magazine. He wrote for The Sunday Times, and in 2005 joined The Daily Telegraph as a commentator.