RaDical MiDDle - ColdType

206 | denis beckett
19
london and Murder
Nothing boosted frontline like giving it a death
schedule. after the countdown appeared in March ’89 a
surge of rallying-around occurred. This took many forms and
I appreciated them all, but two things stand out, both from
occasional contributors. One was Patrick Lee “paying off” a
card-table debt by doing a huge amount more work than the
debt covered. The other was rian Malan working a sleight-ofhand
in reverse, so that a big sum owed to him by Rolling Stone
in New York wound up in Frontline’s account in return for a
small sum that I’d paid him for an article. (That same Patrick
had long ago made my “twelve rand cheques” notorious.)
The rallying delivered a manager, Sidney Meyer; an editor,
Don caldwell, and revive-plans and support-plans … and a
lesson, a lesson had escaped no-one; not even me.
Those beautiful heartfelt messages that countdown produced
had demanded more. They pleaded for more, appealed for
more. Practically everyone singled out something they wanted