The development of a three channel soft X-ray spectrometer which was specifically designed to resolve the angular intensity distribution of laser generated high harmonics is reported. The spectrometer uses a novel design of three tapered glancing angle mirrors to subtend angles of 0±13, 46±21 and 108±35 mrad in the horizontal plane from the source. These angles were selected to characterise emission within an f5 angular cone, assuming radial symmetry. The soft X-ray mirrors are tapered in width to form an elliptical profile under the application of a bending moment. Design studies demonstrated that by the application of different bending moments, a similar shaped tapered mirror can be used for imaging in each of the three channels. The total subtended solid angle of the instrument in the three channels is 1 millisteradian. The measured resolution of the system is reported as well as the absolute throughput efficiencies in the spectral range 4–40 nm.