Alexander Larman is an author and the US books editor of The Spectator.
From our US edition
Nothing has been as damaging for the British royal family as the unfortunate meeting of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Jeffrey Epstein. Republican Thomas Massie and the Democrat Ro Khanna know this. In a press conference yesterday, they said they had been shown documents that have been otherwise redacted and withheld from the Epstein files. These documents
The statement issued by Buckingham Palace last night, addressing the ongoing fallout from the latest release of Epstein files, was undeniably terse: The King has made clear, in words and through unprecedented actions, his profound concern at allegations which continue to come to light in respect of Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor’s conduct. While the specific claims in
There has been much hand-wringing and drama about what the royal family should be doing – and criticism of what they are doing – about the former Duke and Duchess of York and their respective relationships with Jeffrey Epstein. But amidst all this, two of the most significant voices in the Firm have been conspicuously
At first glance, there are few similarities between Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh’s classic 1945 novel – later adapted into an equally classic ITV series – of prelapsarian bliss in Oxford and Industry, the BBC’s adrenaline-fuelled show that exposes the dark iniquity at the heart of the financial industry. The one is a languid examination of (discreetly portrayed) same-sex love and Catholic
From our US edition
For any serious lover of cinema, the 1970s were both a golden decade and the beginning of the end of film as an art form. After the permissiveness and countercultural impact of the 1960s, a whole generation of new filmmakers emerged, many of whom remain household names. These men – and they were almost exclusively
From our US edition
This year marks the anniversaries of two of David Bowie’s most compelling and powerful albums: 1976’s Station to Station and 2016’s Blackstar. Given that they are often – rightly – described as Bowie’s crowning artistic achievements, amid severe competition from his other releases, they also have the intriguing fillip that both were originally released in
The news that the disgraced former Duke of York has been turfed out of his home of Royal Lodge in the middle of the night and rusticated to a rather less grand property somewhere on the Sandringham Estate will not, perhaps, be greeted with particular sorrow by many. Ever since the latest and highly embarrassing
Since the latest tranche of the Epstein files was released over the weekend, the people who have been most embarrassingly affected by them include Peter Mandelson, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Bill Gates. Yet inevitably, attention has turned to Sarah Ferguson, the former Duchess of York, who is emerging spectacularly poorly from the scandal. This is thanks
Most of us associate Wuthering Heights with high school English classes or Kate Bush caterwauling over the moors while exhibiting some remarkable interpretative dance moves. The news then that the Emerald Fennell-directed film of what she calls “my favourite book in the world” has become the subject of a race-based controversy may come as a
From our US edition
When Billie Eilish declared, during her acceptance speech for song of the year with “Wildflower” at last night’s Grammy awards, that “I feel like we just need to keep fighting and speaking up and protesting, and our voices really do matter,” she was speaking in the approved register. “Fuck ICE,” she added but it was
When historians write the definitive biography of the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the character of Peter Mandelson will prove a hard one to portray to those who were not around. Mandy, as he was semi-affectionately known, has undergone one of the most bizarre and humiliating journeys in British public life. Once, he was the
If you had been fortunate enough to see the first night of Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin at the Opéra National de Paris last week, then it might have been with a slight jolt of surprise that you saw a familiar face take to the stage as the cast took their bows. Ralph Fiennes, the award-winning actor, was not
It was widely suggested that many powerful people – from President Donald Trump downwards – would have preferred the notorious Jeffrey Epstein files remain sealed for years to come. Now, with the latest and perhaps most shocking release yet, the doors of his seedy transatlantic boys’ club have been blown open. Epstein had a rare
Whisper it, but Harry Styles – once talked of as the biggest British pop star since Robbie Williams – may have come a cropper. His moody new single, ‘Aperture’, lacks the obvious immediacy of earlier hits like ‘As It Was’ and ‘Watermelon Sugar’. His tradition of playing to the gallery (or, the cynical might say,
From our US edition
As far as teaser trailers for summer blockbusters go, it takes quite a lot to make jaded audiences – or cynical critics – sit up and say, “What the hell?” But what’s exactly what the latest trailer for Christopher Nolan’s eagerly awaited The Odyssey has done. Not because it has featured a couple of new
The news that the Revolution chain of bars has gone into administration may not immediately fill Spectator readers with sorrow. When the Revolution group began in the early Nineties, their raison d’etre was to pump young people full of as much strangely flavoured vodka, in as many different permutations, as they could, all the while
Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson is best known for his 1972 narcotics-fuelled fantasia Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. In some ways, his is a story of life imitating art. Thompson lived large, once saying: ‘I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.’ He killed himself in
From our US edition
The casting of the new James Bond is the biggest story in Hollywood at the moment. The sheer amount of disinformation and exaggeration that has accompanied snippets of news about the production of a new 007 adventure is remarkable, even by the standards of La La Land. Ever since the Bond franchise was purchased by
From our US edition
Can Sinners pull off the biggest Oscars upset in recent times? That’s the question that many in Hollywood will be asking after Ryan Coogler’s genre-bending period-musical-horror picture has been nominated for a mighty 16 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor and Actress, and more. While it has been looking like a done
From our US edition
Woody Allen once sardonically described the fans of his films as being divided between those who liked the “early, funny ones” and the later, darker pictures. Much the same might be said of another famous WA: Wes Anderson, who has established himself as one of American cinema’s most significant auteurs despite no longer living in