ABSTRACT

Not for the first time, nor the last, Matthew Engel wrote what I wish I had had the wherewithal to write. He even used the dreaded ‘I’ word without raising hackles. Columnists aside, newspapers actively discourage the ‘I’ word; on this occasion the exception was absolutely justified, but the rule makes sense: given that your byline generally lies above the copy, and that the reporter is almost never a relevant part of the story, to use the first-person singular is regarded as egotistical.