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High life

High liferss

Elizabeth Debicki, 'should have been cast as Daisy', according to Taki. Image: Getty

18 May 2013

New York At an art shindig on Park Avenue, I spotted Baz Luhrmann, the director of the latest and very noisy version of The Great Gatsby. A charming man, I… Read more

Bette Midler stars in 'I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers Photo: Getty

11 May 2013

New York Life is definitely beautiful, as long as one can see, that is, which for two miserable days last week I couldn’t. Having had a glaucoma operation two months… Read more

4 May 2013

Which is the most infamous bite in history? Surely Adam’s, but then the one Steve Rubbell took off Halston’s leg was far more expensive. Let me explain for you young… Read more

27 April 2013

New York The search for the two Chechen terrorists in Boston was nothing compared with mine for new digs in the Bagel. And the knowledge accrued while cruising with estate… Read more

20 April 2013

New York I chose to live on 68th street between Madison and Fifth Avenue because it’s next to Central Park and is considered as convenient an address as any in… Read more

13 April 2013

New York When the President of the United States has to apologise publicly for calling a woman ‘the best looking attorney general in the country’, I know it’s time to… Read more

Giorgos Katidis was banned for life from playing for Greece for having given a Nazi salute during a game. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

6 April 2013

New York When Greek democracy was restored back in 1974, some ‘democratic’-leaning newspapers tried to criminalise my writings, so much so that I got 16 months in the pokey for… Read more

Very few girls said no to JFK, who was not only good-looking and gracious, but also a gentleman,

30 March 2013

A nice package arrived by post just as I was going to ring a friend in London and inquire how old and how good a title is if the bearer… Read more

23 March 2013

He was a member of a charmed circle of Hellene and Philhellene intellectuals just before and after the second world war, experiencing modern Greece and seeing it as a place… Read more

16 March 2013

It felt like a stiletto jab in my liver, a pain so sharp it will take half a century to forget. Jessica Raine — aka Nurse Jenny in Call the… Read more

9 March 2013

To Manchester for an address to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society for the Kilburn Lecture on ‘The Future of the Olympic Games’. The learned society is Britain’s second oldest,… Read more

2 March 2013

‘I was distressed to learn of some of your current problems and wanted to send you a word of encouragement. Since the time Bob Tyrrell introduced us a few years… Read more

23 February 2013

Gstaad The Alps are aglow as never before. A record snowfall and an abundance of sun have turned the region into a postcard of long ago. From afar, that is.… Read more

16 February 2013

Hanky-panky is American slang for doing what comes naturally. In this Valentine’s Day week, I offer you Swoon, a book about great seducers and why women love them — one… Read more

9 February 2013

Gstaad  Sir Roger Moore told the Sunday Telegraph that he enjoys the slow pace of life in Switzerland. As do I. One cannot have too much of a snowy peak… Read more

2 February 2013

Good for you, Clive, as in James, on your television criticism for the Telegraph. Not many people nowadays know how good a painter Gerald Murphy was. Richard E. Grant pointed… Read more

26 January 2013

Paris Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the Latin Quarter still evoke the verbose sophistry of Sartre, although the tourist and expensive jewellery trades have replaced the ‘rendez-vous des intellectuels’. Yet the sheer stunning… Read more

19 January 2013

Gstaad The sub-primate level of conversation, as prevalent as the snow up here in the Alps, took a turn for the better last week while a select few celebrated Prince… Read more

12 January 2013

Friends who were among the last to leave Palataki at New Year tell me there were stragglers waiting to be admitted, and this was as the sun was coming up… Read more

5 January 2013

Lanza is a noble Sicilian name which I believe appears in Il Gattopardo, Lampedusa’s immortal tale of changing times in Sicily during the 1850s. Prince Raimondo Lanza was one of… Read more

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