Lord Gnome is the perpetual (if fictional) proprietor of Private Eye, portrayed in the magazine as a man of terrifying wealth, greed, unscrupulousness and vulgarity. His resemblance to various real-life newspaper proprietors may not be coincidental. He also apparently has a finger in every pie, with his opening letter in most issues of the Eye regularly plugging other ventures (or deploring their failure), and frequent special offers from 'Gnomemart' included in the magazine. The Eye also carries an occasional column called the 'curse of Gnome' which chronicles the subsequent misfortunes of those who have in the past taken legal action against the publication. March 4, 2005 cover of Private Eye; this is a typical example of the magazines front cover. ...

Referred to as Aristides P Gnome in early editions of Private Eye, Gnome was apparently ennobled at some time in the mid 1960s.

His personal secretary is Emmanuel Strobes.

His personal assistant is Miss Rita Chevrolet.

In reality, Peter Cook and Nicholas Luard are among those who have replenished the coffers of the Eye when necessary. Peter Edward Cook (November 17, 1937 – January 9, 1995) was an English satirist, writer and comedian who is widely regarded as the father of the British satire boom of the 1960s. ... Nicholas Lamert Luard, (26 June 1937 – 25 May 2004), was a writer and politician, but is perhaps best known for his activities in the early 1960s: co-founding The Establishment with Peter Cook and being one of the Lords Gnome of Private Eye. ...

Lord Gnome is the probable inspiration for the fictional owner of another satrical publication - T. Herman Zweibel of The Onion. T. Herman Zweibel (born 1868) is a fictional character, the long term editor of The Onion, whose adventures were recounted in a series of often bizarre editorials, ending in December 2000, where he was leaving the earth in a rocket-ship. ... The Onion is a newspaper of parody and satire, published weekly in print and on the Internet. ...