F1 is forgettable, but a lot of fun
Be prepared to forget virtually everything apart from the sheer sensation of being in an F1 race car traveling very, very fast indeed
Alexander Larman
Alexander Larman is an author and the US books editor of The Spectator.
Thursday
Wednesday
Starmer may regret bringing forward Trump’s state visit
From our UK edition
One of the most notable features of Keir Starmer’s otherwise undistinguished premiership is the bromance that he seems to have formed with King Charles. Both men seem to have a shared sense of moral values and a reticence of character that appears to have served them well in what, up until now, has been a
Tuesday
Elizabeth II deserves better than this awful tribute
From our UK edition
The winner of the contest to design a memorial to the late Elizabeth II has been announced, and it’s not very good. When the shortlist of five designs was unveiled last month, the most striking feature of the various hopefuls was how little they had to say about the much-loved Queen, or the country she
Why television can’t depict the posh
From our UK edition
In her 1954 essay ‘The English Aristocracy’, the author Nancy Mitford popularised the descriptions ‘U’, i.e. upper-class or aristocratic, and ‘non-U’, to denote household terms. Although she did not coin the phrase (that credit belongs to the otherwise forgotten linguist Alan S.C. Ross), she brought it to wider public attention. When her friends John Betjeman
Saturday
Whatever will Meghan think of selling next?
From our UK edition
Well, you can’t say that we weren’t warned. Repeatedly. At the beginning of this week, the Duchess of Sussex wrote in a subscriber newsletter, in that inimitably faux-chummy way that she has perfected: First off, a sincere thank you for making the debut of As Ever absolutely extraordinary. We had a feeling there would be
Thursday
28 Years Later is the movie of the summer
In a summer full of witless, unnecessary sequels and remakes, 28 Years Later is the real thing
Wednesday
Should we worry about the Princess of Wales?
From our UK edition
The announcement, when it came, was a strangely botched one. The official Ascot carriage list had stated at 12 p.m. that the Prince and Princess of Wales would be riding in the second carriage in the royal procession, accompanied by their friends Mr and Mrs Justin Rose. It was already known that Prince William would
Tuesday
The lost art of late dining
From our UK edition
One of the most memorable dinners I ever had was about 20 years ago, at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Fitzrovia called Pied à Terre. It’s still going, and indeed remains a stalwart of the city’s fine dining scene, but what I especially remember, rather than the food or wine, was how deliciously louche an experience
Thursday
The tragedy of Brian Wilson’s life
From our UK edition
The late Brian Wilson, who has died aged 82, once had his songs, which included modern-day classics such as ‘God Only Knows’ and ‘Good Vibrations’, described as ‘pocket symphonies to God’. For just about any other artist, such a description would be grandiloquent tosh. Yet in the case of Wilson, who struggled with personal demons
Tuesday
Farewell to Frederick Forsyth, the master of the thriller
From our UK edition
If Frederick Forsyth had not existed, you would have had to invent him. Yet no novelist could have come up with as convivial, swashbuckling and lively a character as the thriller writer, who has died at the age of 86. Many of his millions of admirers thought him almost immortal, and over the course of
Monday
Who’d want to stay in Meghan Markle’s hotel?
From our UK edition
Say what you like about the Duchess of Sussex – and I try to – but she has a knack for coming up with the provocative. While the world is still reeling from the recent video of her twerking (and a thousand thinkpieces solemnly debating exactly whether she has a right to twerk or not), she has
The Tony Awards were surprisingly safe and unexciting
The ceremony went two steps forward and one step backwards
Friday
Why did it take so long to give David Beckham his knighthood?
From our UK edition
Arise, Sir Goldenballs. Next week, David Beckham will finally become Sir David in the King’s birthday honours, which in turn will mean that his wife will become Lady Victoria Beckham. Once, when she was best known for being the pop songstress Posh Spice – and he was most famous for being an unusually petulant Manchester
Thursday
Meghan Markle has a strange definition of privacy
From our UK edition
There are some sights that nobody should ever be forced to see, lest they be forced into a lifetime of therapy-intensive PTSD. To this list should be added a video of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex twerking. For some unfathomable reason, Meghan and Harry decided to mark their daughter Lilibet’s fourth birthday by posting a video
Tuesday
Unpacking John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s complex relationship
You end John & Paul in understanding of their essential humanity
Monday
Mountainhead gets nowhere near the polished vitriol of Succession
You’re moderately engaged by the characters’ awfulness, but it is only a passing diversion
Wednesday
What future awaits the new Harry Potter stars?
The trio have taken on perhaps the most anticipated, and potentially problematic, roles on television
Tuesday
Charles has shown true statesmanship in Canada
From our UK edition
As his younger son conducts an attention-seeking trip to China, it was King Charles, addressing Canada’s House of Commons and Senate, who showed how a calm, dignified approach to public life pays far greater dividends than empty point-scoring. The King has been a popular and welcome figure in Canada since he arrived with the Queen
What is Prince Harry doing in China?
From our UK edition
Whenever you read about the latest international escapade of Prince Harry’s, it is hard not to think of the famous words said about the Scarlet Pimpernel, the evasive hero of Baroness Orczy’s novel: ‘They seek him here, they seek him thereThose Frenchies seek him everywhereIs he in heaven or is he in hell?That damned elusive
Monday
There will never be another Alan Yentob
From our UK edition
In the excellent BBC comedy series W1A, which poked a harsher degree of fun at its makers than many would have believed credible, there is one especially amusing throwaway gag. The hapless Ian Fletcher (Hugh Bonneville) is taken on a tour of Broadcasting House, and briefly veers into a meeting room, where, to his surprise,
