16 Facts About Private Eye

Private Eye is a British fortnightly satirical and current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961.

Private Eye is Britain's best-selling current affairs magazine, and such is its long-term popularity and impact that many of its recurring in-jokes have entered popular culture in the United Kingdom.

Forerunner of Private Eye was The Salopian, a school magazine published at Shrewsbury School in the mid-1950s and edited by Richard Ingrams, Willie Rushton, Christopher Booker and Paul Foot.

At first, Private Eye was a vehicle for juvenile jokes: an extension of the original school magazine, and an alternative to Punch.

Peter Cook – who in October 1961 founded The Establishment, the first satirical nightclub in London – purchased Private Eye in 1962 together with Nicholas Luard, and was a long-time contributor.

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Some contributors to Private Eye are media figures or specialists in their field who write anonymously, often under humorous pseudonyms, such as "Dr B Ching" who writes the "Signal Failures" column about the railways, in reference to the Beeching cuts.

Private Eye has traditionally lagged behind other magazines in adopting new typesetting and printing technologies.

Private Eye has regularly and extensively reported on and investigated a wide range of far-reaching issues, including:.

Private Eye was one of the journalistic organisations involved in sifting and analysing the Paradise Papers, and this commentary appears in In the Back.

At various times, Private Eye has used the work of Ralph Steadman, Wally Fawkes, Timothy Birdsall, Martin Honeysett, Willie Rushton, Gerald Scarfe, Robert Thompson, Ken Pyne, Geoff Thompson, "Jorodo", Ed McLauchlan, Simon Pearsall, Kevin Woodcock, Brian Bagnall, Kathryn Lamb and George Adamson.

Private Eye has from time to time produced various spin-offs from the magazine, including:.

Private Eye has long been known for attracting libel lawsuits, which in English law can lead to the award of damages relatively easily.

Private Eye sued over allegations that he had been one of the members of the Clermont Set who had conspired to assist Lord Lucan after Lucan had murdered his family nanny, Sandra Rivett.

In 2009, Private Eye successfully challenged an injunction brought against it by Michael Napier, the former head of the Law Society, who had sought to claim "confidentiality" for a report that he had been disciplined by the Law Society in relation to a conflict of interest.

In 1981 the book The Private Eye Story stated that the owners were Cook, who owned most of the shares, with smaller shareholders including the actors Dirk Bogarde and Jane Asher, and several of those involved with the founding of the magazine.

Private Eye was then formally adopted as a mascot on the inside pages, as a symbol of the old, radical incarnation of Punch magazine that the Eye admired.