Why I resigned from the Guardian

And why I won’t be retiring - just yet!

Why would you give up one of the best jobs in journalism - to write about your specialist subject for a national newspaper? It’s just not done. 

I have colleagues who are still penning - or rather tapping out - the wine columns they were writing when I first arrived on the scene in the early ‘90s and an excellent job they do too. But such long term commitment is not for me, despite my deep attachment to the Guardian.

Other people give up jobs they love, of course - it’s not exclusive to wine writers. Being a Liverpool supporter, Jurgen Klopp immediately comes to mind (don’t hate me Man U fans) while Claudia Winkleman left her Saturday morning slot on Radio 2 …

Chefs do too. Alex Jackson, a chef I greatly admire and who has been at the stoves of Noble Rot Soho clearly can’t resist the lure of a fresh challenge. (He’ll be cooking at the café at Leila’s Shop in Shoreditch come the autumn)

As Pete Wells said recently on giving up his restaurant reviewing gig on the New York Times “I can’t hack the week-to-week reviewing life anymore.” Me neither.

I had toyed with leaving before but the trigger for me was a long-standing ambition to visit Mexico for Day of the Dead.

Why couldn’t I do that without resigning? Because it would have meant being away at the busiest time of year for the newspaper when you have to submit all your Christmas wine recommendations. Leave might conceivably have been granted if I’d managed to file my copy ahead but would not have been massively appreciated particularly if I was gone for 2 weeks.

So I asked myself which was more important - to fulfil this ambition or do my Christmas wine recs for the umpteenth time. Unsurprisingly Mexico won.  

I also wanted to free myself to write more on this platform. I really love Substack and the freedom it offers me.

So what were the other considerations . . .

This is the more personal type of post I share with my paying subscribers so if you want to read on - or, perhaps more to the point, continue to get my wine recommendations - you’ll need to sign up, I’m afraid.