Inside the telling of an epic tale: John Honderich’s son and his editor on the challenges and surprises in the late Star publisher’s memoir

When former Torstar chair John Honderich died on Feb. 5, 2022, one of the things he left behind was a book he’d been working on for about 15 years about his beloved Toronto Star. It’s not a long book; nor is it a tell-all book: it is a book about the Star, about a personal life devoted to a company, about relationships between fathers and sons and families and board members, about the history of newspapers in Canada, and in Toronto in particular. It begins with his own father, Beland Honderich, in the hospital, rasping in his final words to John, who had moved up from reporter to editor to chairman of the board: “Don’t … let them … ruin … the paper …” There was no specific “them” John writes, “it was an impassioned call to all involved to remain constantly vigilant about the quality of the paper and the legendary Atkinson Principles.” The Star’s Deborah Dundas spoke with John’s son Robin Honderich, who works at the Star, and Doug Pepper, his editor at Penguin Random House, about getting “Above The Fold” published after John’s death and the secrets he revealed.

At what stage of readiness was this book when John passed?

Doug Pepper It was a week or two in with the copy editor. The substantive edit was done and the larger issues had been dealt with in conversations between John and myself. The book was in good editorial shape. I was going to meet with him two days after he passed to go over photographs for the inserts. There were digital and online archives and 35 (photo albums) … that was left up to Robin and I and Taras (the Star’s photo editor Taras Slawnych).

So, when you came into the process, Robin, what were your expectations? You and Doug hadn’t even met at that point?

Robin Honderich (Dad and I) talked about the book all the time. I knew that he felt he was pretty much done with his writing part, (and) I wanted to see this through for Dad. I knew how important this was for him and I knew that he got so close to it. So Doug was one of my early phone calls, in the days after Dad’s death, to say, “Hey, I’m his son, and I’ll help out where I can to see this through.”

John says in his epilogue that he’d been working on the book for 15 years. Did his focus for what he wanted it to be change at all over that time?

RH It kind of became a running joke for a long time where I’d ask Dad “How’s the book coming?” because he was not working on the book. He would have this huge briefcase full of notes and a computer that he would lug all the way up to the cottage, put on the ground and leave there, and then lug all the way back to the city. But that was when he was still chair of the board and, I think, didn’t know what the final chapter was going to be. Whereas when he sold the Star it was full steam ahead. I don’t think the focus changed. I think he always liked this bookend thing of starting with Grandpa in the hospital to when (my father) became chair of the board. (The question was) what do you do after that?

John kept copious records — as, apparently, did his father, Beland — called “Bee” throughout the book. Theirs was a difficult relationship. But your father discovered that Bee kept a file of letters they wrote to each other labelled “John” that he refers to a lot.

RH My reading of the book is that some of his perspectives might have been altered slightly when he saw and read that “John” file — the fact that Grandpa would even keep a file with all their correspondence. Grandpa was a tough nut. There was love between (him and my father) but it was rarely expressed or shown or spoken to. So I think that file did have a bit of an impact.

You both mention the boxes and boxes of papers, of photographs and files that John kept. This book is just 320 pages or so. Do either of you have any insight into how he chose what to tell and what to hold back?

RH He told me he didn’t want it to be too long. To me what’s so appealing about the book is he’s such a great storyteller, and he just doesn’t dwell. There are some big moments and unbelievable revelations that are just kind of dropped, but then you’re moving on very quickly to the next day. He was worried about Doug — he was worried about being edited and (taken) in a direction he didn’t want to go. But that actually went very well between them.

DP If anything I wanted him to fill out a little — you can’t just drop this little bomb here! On certain things I was successful and on certain things he held his ground. Sometimes authors are self-aware enough to know that if they start bringing things in that are salacious they’re going to get headlines that can overshadow the actual book and the life itself. He wanted to make the Toronto Star front and centre.

RH I’ve got a great example of what Doug is talking about. I got one of the early copies of the book. And his divorce was literally one sentence. And I was like, “Dad, come on, we’ve got to do more than one sentence on your divorce here. It’s not totally balanced.” I ended up getting him to a paragraph. I felt that was a win.

You both mention revelations, little bombs that are just dropped. What surprised you?

DP Right from the beginning “Bee” is there and there is a serious tension. I wasn’t surprised that John could write, but he wrote in a … way that completely drew me into the story of this family. I’m surprised he tackled the relationship with his father, which was not easy, to put it mildly. It wasn’t simply the Toronto Star but something deeper, and more familial and more relatable to even a person that’s never read the Toronto Star.

RH When I was five years old my dad and mum took me and my sister to England for a year. My dad took a sabbatical; Grandpa was surprised, Grandpa was against it. It was a wonderful experience for our family. But Dad actually wrote a book during that year off called “Arctic Imperative: Is Canada Losing The North?” (When Dad) came back he and Grandpa (went) to the Atkinson Foundation and created the Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy based on that year off. Blew my mind. I had no idea.

If there’s anything this book emphasizes, it’s the commitment of the Star to the Atkinson Principles, particularly at the board level and with the five voting families. It seemed to cost everyone a lot.

RH What I was really struck by is that both my father and my grandfather were so committed to the Atkinson Principles. And what the five voting families committed to was this idea that profit was secondary to a great paper. That was much easier for my grandpa than it was for my dad, because my grandpa was doing it at a time when papers were churning out money. I’m not putting down Grandpa in any way, it’s just (that) it’s easy to have profit as a secondary motive when we’re making tons of money versus when my dad took over, when really big challenges were starting to hit. He remained so committed to that while taking so many personal and family hits and was so steadfast and had such steely resolve … (about) how important it was for democracy and for society, to have a strong newspaper in Canada’s biggest city.

Hits like what?

There were ups and downs in the family, including his own father kind of backstabbing him at various times, or not supporting him. Grandpa did not vote for Dad becoming publisher of The Star. He voted against him at the board. Can you imagine that? It’s stunning. I didn’t even know that until I read this book. And (Dad becoming publisher) was a very big deal in our family, as I think it was a turning point for both my parents leading up to their divorce. But underneath all of that, Beland and John were on the same page and did believe in the same things.

Your father’s memorial, Robin, which took place in May, seems much like what he writes that “Bee” wanted for himself — “to gather informally, without fuss, and have a glass of wine, and celebrate a life that was far from perfect but endeavoured to make a useful contribution to society.”

RH It was COVID when Dad died and so we couldn’t have a large gathering. We had to have this tiny family-only funeral, and do a celebration of life separately. My favourite compliment from that night was that it was a party he would have wanted to be at. We looked to … bring people together and celebrate a life well lived but (that) tried to make an impact.

In addition to the family story, there’s a real arc about the newspaper business in this book — from the beginning of the 20th century to just a few years ago.

DP If this was a different place, if this was in the States or London or New York, we’d have records of this history and how it was interrelated and how the personalities feuded and got along. I think it’s a valuable piece of history, not just for Torontonians but for Canadians in general.