Toby Young
Toby Young
Toby Youngis a British journalist and educationalist. Young is the author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, the tale of his stint in New York as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine. He served as a judge in seasons five and six of the television show Top Chef and co-founded the West London Free School...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionJournalist
literate people picked talked undergone
I've never been to a shrink. But my parents were very psychologically literate - my father had undergone Freudian analysis - and we often talked about other people in psychological terms, so I picked up a lot of that.
aptitude academic-work mechanic
I tried being a mechanic and I tried catering, but I realized I had even less aptitude for semi-skilled labour than for academic work.
ambition cat eye
My life's ambition is to play a James Bond villain. I have the cat and the eye-patch, so I'm just waiting for the call. For some reason, though, the phone hasn't rung.
humorous writing thinking
I really like the Observer. I think I'd love to have a column with a broad reach that would enable me to do some proper reporting, but keep it on sort of a humorous level. I've always had a very happy experience writing for them.
owners masters describe-myself
I wouldn't describe myself as a master of anything.
party self laughing
You know when you tell a self-deprecating story at a dinner party, everyone's laughing along with you? But then when someone else repeats that same story at another dinner party you feel they're all laughing at you?
absolutely incredibly people
'Top Chef' is a very smooth-running machine. All the people working there are incredibly professional and absolutely at the top of their game.