You will understand, then, that by the end of 1906 Annesley Bupp had
a reputation; to be exact, he had two reputations. In Fleet Street
he was known as a writer upon whom a sub-editor could depend; a
furnisher of what got to be called "buppy"--matter which is paid at
a slightly higher rate than ordinary copy, because the length and
quality of it never vary. Outside Fleet Street he was regarded
simply as a literary light; Annesley Bupp, the fellow whose name you
saw in every paper; an accepted author.
It was not surprising, therefore, that at the beginning of 1907
public opinion forced Annesley into (sic) n wer fields of
literature. It demanded from him, among other things, a weekly
review of current fiction entitled Fireside Friends. He wrote this
with extraordinary fluency; a few words of introduction, followed by
a large fragment of the book before him, pasted beneath the line,
"Take this, for instance." An opinion of any kind he rarely
ventured; an adverse opinion, like a good friend, never.
About this time he was commissioned to write three paragraphs each
day for an evening paper. The first of them always began: "Mr
Asquith's admission in the House of Commons yesterday that he had
never done so and so is not without parallel. In 1746 the elder Pitt
..." The second always began: "Mention of the elder Pitt recalls the
fact that ..." The third always began: "It may not be generally
known ..."
Until he began to write these paragraphs Annesley Bupp had no
definite political views.