It’s Lunch with the FT’s 30th birthday, and to celebrate, Henry Mance has been delving into our very colourful archives — indeed, we all have.
Here, FT readers and journalists guide you through their personal favourites. Any glaring omissions? Feel free to add your own in the comments below.
‘Erudite people getting eruditely sloshed’
I liked Henry’s lunch with Nigel Farage. Not because I’m a Farage fan, quite the opposite; but I do see the value in hearing from people I don’t ordinarily make an effort to seek out and listen to. If they do turn out to be obnoxious, I get the frisson of having my priors vindicated; if they turn out to be decent, I get the virtuous glow of having ventured out of my filter bubble. And, of course, it’s always a pleasure to read accounts of erudite people getting eruditely sloshed.
— darksider, FT reader
‘Re-reading it made me tear up a bit’
I edited or helped to edit many lunches — from 2007-14 — and Henry Mance’s wonderful piece brings it all back. My favourite is a 2008 lunch between two remarkable women: Gloria Steinem and Chrystia Freeland. At the time, Chrystia was a senior FT editor and our former boss at FT Weekend. She’s gone on to be a Canadian leader on the global stage, and was the subject of a lunch herself in 2020. Re-reading Chrystia and Gloria, it made me tear up a bit. The path of women’s progress has barely been smooth since, but it’s a raw, beautiful and enduring conversation, full of wisdom, realism, anger — and sharing of profound grief. I love it.
— Isabel Berwick, host and editor of the FT’s Working It podcast and newsletter
‘Unrestrained, authentic with or without the booze’
Quite a number to salivate, reminisce, chuckle about — or almost choke with a giggle — several months or years after reading. The best for me are those that bring out the real personalities, unrestrained, authentic with or without the booze! Many, but the Nigel Farage, Julius Malema and Boris Becker interviews I remember sharing with many non-FT subscribers. Absolutely brilliant stuff. Thank you to Max Wilkinson [the former FT Weekend editor who started Lunch with the FT] and all who have been involved.
— oyesoji oyeleke, FT reader
‘A beautiful illustration of how important it is to stay humble’
There have been many memorable ones, but the most impressive has been a relatively recent one with the Pet Shop Boys, especially as their lunch came shortly after Liz Truss. Why? Because two heroes of my youth proved to be funny, full of humility and critical self-reflection. I read this lunch back-to-back with the Lunch with Truss and it just was a beautiful illustration of how important it is to stay humble.
— Greatdreamer, FT reader
A ‘fearless’ economist and an inventor who takes 30 morning pills
For the lunch where the guest aligned fully with how those of us who know her have known her to be — articulate and fearless: [economist] Mariana Mazzucato. For the breakfast (“That is not lunch!” you say? Tell the FT that) that featured “30 morning pills (his daily intake includes coenzyme Q10, lutein and bilberry extract, glutathione IV, vinpocetine and pyridoxal 5-phosphate)” and reminded me of the joke about life being long versus life feeling long: [inventor] Ray Kurzweil.
— Maya, FT reader
‘A portrait of an entire society’
Mine is David Pilling on [former Australian prime minister] Kevin Rudd, from 2011. I mean, read it. It’s a portrait of an entire society, as well as a rich insight into a very thoughtful, awkward, stubborn guy. By one of the FT’s very best writers.
— Audere est facere, FT reader
Two lunches, two Ronnies
Too many to list but two of my favourites were two Ronnies. [Rolling Stones guitarist] Ronnie Wood’s lunch in Ireland took place against the backdrop of the tabloids about to do a story on him. [Champion snooker player] Ronnie O’Sullivan’s lunch is not only brilliantly written but is the favourite among those I’ve been involved in editing. Being a top sports star, Ronnie had an agent who, after establishing that we didn’t pay a fee for interviews, decided he wanted to sit in on the lunch himself. I volunteered to go along to Roka to keep him occupied and we had our own lunch while the real one took place. An alright bloke as it happened.
— Neil O’Sullivan, associate editor, FT Weekend Magazine
‘A huge bowl of pasta in front of a roaring log fire’
I remember visiting Muriel Spark high in the Tuscan hills in midwinter under five feet of snow, snaking up the twisting road behind the village snowplough, having to ditch my tiny rented Fiat and walk the last half mile. There was no question of getting out to a restaurant, so lunch was a huge bowl of pasta made by her companion Penelope in front of a roaring log fire. Dame Muriel (who was very dressy) was more concerned with the state of my suede boots than talking about her new novel. And yes: they were a goner.
— Jan Dalley, outgoing FT arts editor
‘Great writing that lets readers piece things together’
I love an interview with someone hesitant to discuss their true thoughts (for political reasons or otherwise), but where the great writing still lets the readers piece together the interviewee’s feelings. Demetri Sevastopulo’s interview with [retired US military chief] Mark Milley was a masterclass.
— Aiden Reiter, FT financial reporter for Unhedged
‘Lunches inevitably reveal something by accident’
I started reading the FT as a student, in part because it explained what was clearly a world-changing event — the global financial crisis — in a way that I understood, but I stayed for the lunches. What I love about them is that they inevitably reveal something by accident — Julius Malema turning up with his entourage, the visible menace of Emmerson Mnangagwa’s lunch, but my favourite has to be one of the first I read: Alec Russell’s lunch with FW de Klerk.
— Stephen Bush, FT columnist and associate editor
‘You are not to feel bad about this’
Many wonderful pieces, but nothing can top the culmination of the Gavin Ewart lunch: “There are two things you need to know,” [the poet’s wife] said. “The first is that Gavin came home yesterday happier than I have seen him in a long time. The second — and you are not to feel bad about this — is that he died this morning.”
— MountainState, FT reader
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