Alec Marsh

What Ridley Scott gets wrong about history

Accuracy matters

  • From Spectator Life
(Apple TV)

The film director Ridley Scott says that those who worry about the historical inaccuracies in his new biopic of Napoleon should ‘get a life’. Or as the told The Sunday Times last week: ‘When I have issues with historians, I ask: “Excuse me, mate, were you there? No? Well, shut the fuck up, then.’

If you’re not careful you can end up changing history

You don’t need to be Alan Bennett to cock an eyebrow at that.

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Written by
Alec Marsh
Alec Marsh’s latest Drabble & Harris book is Ghosts of the West, published by Headline Accent.

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