Telegraph axe AN Wilson and Brown

It seems that even big name writers are not to be spared from the savage cost-cutting taking place at the Daily Telegraph. In a move that will undoubtedly enrage the paper's readers, the humourist Craig Brown and the novelist and historian A.N Wilson (pictured) are both to be put out to graze.

While Wilson's dismissal has yet to be officially confirmed – and when it is, he will no doubt save his spleen-letting for an article in another newspaper – Brown told the Guardian: "I suppose the whole thing is a massive cost-cutting exercise, but it seems almost perverse that they have chosen to cull most of their best writers rather than their worst.

"Keith Waterhouse once said that, as a freelance, you are like a busker outside cinemas – if one commissionaire moves you on, you just go and play outside another. I think this is a good rule to work by."

Brown, who writes a weekly book review for the Mail on Sunday, as well as columns for Private Eye and Vanity Fair, had been a contributor to the Daily Telegraph for more than 14 years and will write his last piece for the newspaper before Christmas.

The two men’s dismissal follows the firing of several staff journalists last week, including literary editor Sam Leith.