Me and my Influencers

First in a very occasional series

William Essex
2 min readJan 11, 2025
Tower Bridge, taken from the river
Yep! That’s the place. Photo by Peter Sil on Unsplash

Once, in a long-ago office, I picked up a phone and heard a voice say, “David! Come to lunch!”

“This isn’t David. This is William.”

“William! Come to lunch!”

No hesitation. A touch of humour in the voice.

“I’d love to! Who is this?”

“I’ll give you the address. Got a pen?”

The address was a wharf-conversion on the South Bank, a big top-floor open-plan living space with exposed beams, lots of shelves and books and rugs and hangings, and views out over the Thames towards Tower Bridge.

The address was an inspiration. Big, airy and fresh. Like a show-flat for a way of life. Within moments of arriving there, I knew that I wanted to live that life. The feeling stayed with me all afternoon.

“You must be William! Come on in!”

And that was how I met Anthony Blond. He was a publisher (and the David in this story was a novelist) and I remember that he was enthusiastic and welcoming and not at all fazed by the fact that we had never met before.

We talked. No — mostly, he talked. I kept up. I remember at one point a long disquisition about how to make your own vinegar — although he never did send me the mère he promised. He was funny and informative and some of what he said I took as advice — but mostly, I remember the fresh air and the sunshine and the life.

I thought of Anthony Blond today, out of the blue, and I smiled at the memory of that lunch. Because I was sitting at a screen, I looked him up. He was “reported to have given the first chance to some 70 writers,” and he “made publishing hum in the days before the conglomerates”.

Yes. That would fit with my memory of him.

We can never know the impact we have on other people. If Anthony Blond was around today, I doubt that he’d remember me as I remember him. It was a long lunch in a decade of long lunches, that’s all, and in the evening I crossed the river and took a District Line train back to Earl’s Court where I was living. That’s all.

But I’m still glad I picked up that phone.

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William Essex
William Essex

Written by William Essex

Former everything. I still write books, I still write stories. Author of The Book of Fake Futures, The Journey from Heaven, Escape Mutation.

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