Most people would never guess that ‘The Tatler‘, as it was once called, was in fact born as long ago as 1709. The one-of-a-kind English glossy, dedicated with such unique excellence to the ongoing evolution of English and international society, is celebrating its 300th anniversary today with the launch of its November 09 issue.

As we walked past their stand in the Art London exhibition yesterday –If you happen to be in London, this is a four-day fair happening now in Chelsea, ahead of Frieze next week–, I have had the pleasure of being introduced to Tatler’s history hearing it directly from its team. The story truly is an inspiring adventure for such a uniquely identifiable publication.

It all started in the streets of central London in April 1709 with a freesheet distributed in the street, and not long thereafter sold for one penny a copy. The Tatler’s founder and editor in chief was Sir Richard Steele, a well respected man about town.

Unfortunately, due to political legacies at the time, the paper didn’t last too long and it took it as much as 168 years to relaunch for a few issues and then about 34 more for the ancient title to actually resurrect itself in 1901.

It was Clement Shorter in 1901, a respected literary man, who created ‘The Tatler’ that would remain a weekly ‘written for the moment’ paper until the seventies. The secret recipe consisted of the highly visual photographs, caricatures, cartoons and of course the focus on blood sports, cricket, tennis, polo, racing, golf, yachting and most importantly on the parties.

Tatler quickly focussed not just on the UK but just as much on the rest of Europe and Hollywood.

But it is in the late seventies that the modern day Tatler grew, particularly from the appointment of Tina Brown as editor in 1979. Reviving the paper, Brown’s success attracted no less than the Condé Nast group, which bought the publication in 1982.

The rest is history, and we invite you to buy a copy this month, which I was offered in advance yesterday, and read the 20-page full story for unique and truly exciting details.