 After graduation, he worked as a script reader for the Royal Court Theatre and from 1972 he contributed theatre reviews to the "Financial Times".He was deputy editor (1973–75) and editor (1975-78) of "Plays and Players" magazine and theatre critic and deputy arts editor of the "Financial Times" throughout the 1980s.He was theatre critic for "The Observer" from 1990 until he joined the "Daily Mail" in 1997, following the death of Jack Tinker.