His father, Sir Ferdinand Mount, Bt, FRSL, is also a journalist, and was an advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
[4] Mount pursued postgraduate studies in Architectural History at the Courtauld Institute, receiving an additional MA degree; he then qualified as a barrister, but failed to secure a tenancy in chambers following his pupillage.
[12] The appointment was criticised by Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner, who called it "a display of pure arrogance by Boris Johnson, putting his own leading crony in charge of stopping cronyism in parliament".
"[14] Also in 2004, he attracted some mild comment for refusing to review David Mitchell's widely acclaimed Cloud Atlas for The Sunday Telegraph because he could not finish it, finding it "unreadable".
Mount fought back with: "The classics trolls instantly associate any dumbing down suggestions with far-right fogeyish snobbishness.