Taki Taki

An elegy on the end of elegance

Prince Dado Ruspoli, Rome’s most successful seducer, who opened up his palazzo and threw a ball I shall never forget [Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images]

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I liked John Prescott enormously

There was a time we all looked forward to on the BBC Today programme, back in the early years of Tony Blair’s first term as Prime Minister. Late July, early August. Blair had scooted off to San Gimignano, Mandelson was probably on a yacht with an oligarch, even Campbell was away battling his weird inner demons somewhere.

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