Etchingham Withdraws Garrick Club Application After Drawn-Out Process

The broadcast journalist Julie Etchingham has withdrawn her candidacy for the Garrick Club, uncomfortable with the protracted process of being vetted by the club's membership of 1,500 men.

- Amelia Gentleman

Etchingham said she would not comment on her decision, but was understood to have been uneasy at the level of hostility displayed by men opposed to the admission of women during a candidacy lunch at the club.

One member said he understood that with "hardly any women being elected, it is very uncomfortable to walk into a room full of men scrutinising (and ogling) you".

Only three women have been admitted in the year since members decided to drop its men-only rule last May, 193 years after the London club was founded. The comedian Matt Lucas was one of six new men to have been elected last month, alongside just one woman, Celia Imrie, who joins fellow actors Judi Dench and Siân Phillips, named as members last year.

Several women from the first batch of female nominees for membership have expressed frustration at the club's "half-hearted" steps towards admitting women.