Do you want to be a better writer? Well, I do, and that’s why I have a suggestion for you: go to Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World at London’s National Portrait Gallery. Curated by Robin Muir, it’s an extraordinary visual celebration of the British photographer’s career, from society portraits to fashion shoots for Vogue; from men of war to Hollywood. It’s definitive and beautiful, and so many images feel new and innovative, even after the passing of numerous decades. The show is also a masterclass in how to write. Next to each image is a little card that helps illuminate what you are looking at and the wit, craft and skill that have gone into writing these is a joy to read.

This week we have been meeting with all of Monocle’s editors to review the year but also to lay down some plans for 2026. We’ve looked at how we told stories, what worked a treat, what fell by the wayside. We’ve talked about writers we would like to work with and the varying needs of print versus digital. We’ve debated why length adds delight sometimes and leaves you cold at others (it’s all about how you use those big words). We’ve talked about inspiration, too. And that’s why I’ve told everyone: go to the Beaton show and read those little cards, which are as honed as any haiku.

OK, I’ll show you what I mean. The note for a picture of the Viennese dancer Tilly Losch says that “Her freedom on stage was matched by her personal style – Beaton compared her to ‘a rifled drawer’ – but she could be modern too, here in a Yvonne Carette suit and a felt turban designed by Charles James, a friend of Beaton’s from Harrow school”. A rifled drawer! You want to know Miss Losch – in just a few words you slide back through time, see the connections; a snapshot becomes a bigger picture.

Or how about this one for an image of The Honourable Mrs Reginald Fellowes, who “was considered the best-dressed woman in the world. The title might have implied frequent changes of wardrobe but, in fact, the distinction was hers on account of a rigorous simplicity of style.” We learn that Lady Ottoline Morrell presided over “a salon of the brilliant and eccentric minds of her age” and was described as having “magenta hair and two protruding teeth”. What a time and all unlocked for visitors in a series of descriptions just 75 words long. It’s writing that’s lean, evocative and fitting. I have waded through numerous magazine profiles and interviews with today’s rich and famous that leave you none the wiser and certainly don’t make you smile. Verbosity can be such a mood killer, as off-putting as a hot date who wants to keep their socks on in bed.

I am certainly not going to lecture anyone on this topic (good writing, I mean, not the socks in bed bit – my views on that are clear) but for me the best journalism is concise, avoids jargon and industry speak, doesn’t reach for arcane words to try to prove the writer’s superior intelligence (or reliance on a thesaurus), dodges clichés, knows how to use words to change pace and mood, delivers some delight and understands what to leave out of the narrative in the pursuit of clarity. I certainly keep striving for all these things (and benefit from the corrective tonic of a crack team of sub editors). But head to the Beaton show if you would like a lesson in delivering brevity, charm and knowledge inside a few short sentences.

*To read more of Andrew’s columns, *click here.