I switch personalities depending on which Spectator party it is
I switch personalities at Spectator parties, depending who the guests are: for our readers’ tea party, I am a warm…
In praise of the fuzz
I was going through my paces in Hyde Park, sweating out the booze, raising the heartbeat with short wind sprints,…
The Queen, Camilla and me
A funny thing happened on my way to lunch last week. I opened the Daily Mail and read a few…
Donald Trump’s Qatari masterstroke
A major Greek ship owner, whose political knowledge matches his wealth and business acumen, explained to me what the Qatar…
Where’s Ayn Rand when you need her?
A famous epigrammatic nugget of wisdom appears in The Leopard, Lampedusa’s great novel about a noble Sicilian family’s fortunes: ‘If…
Thank God for the DUP
I was busy explaining to a 23-year-old American girl by the name of Jennifer why the election result was not…
It’s my final week in the Bagel — and I’m giving it my all
New York Main Street is a place, but it’s mostly an idea. It’s where locally owned shops sell stuff…
Why I’ve had it with Donald Trump
I feel like an obituary writer, what with Nick Scott, Roger Moore, Alistair Horne — all great buddies — and…
My dinner with CIA spooks
New York Although both guilt and innocence fascinate me, I’m not so sure that there is such a thing as…
Journalists have a lot to answer for
At a chic dinner party last week, a Trump insider gossiped about an American president having had an affair with…
Anna Wintour’s freak show diminishes a great institution
Much like the poor, the charity ball has always been with us, but lately it’s turned into a freak. Something…
Remembering Nick Scott: artist and clubman par excellence
I’m sitting in my office and the place is still. The rest of the house is dark. Everyone’s out and…
Tales from the heyday of Studio 54
Twenty-five years ago this week, Los Angeles was burning because of Rodney King’s beating at the hands of the fuzz,…
This is Brexit, Part II - God ordained the first one
If any more proof were needed that Brexit is the best thing to happen to Britain since 1066 and all…
The man who destroyed New York
Things that I once loved — Fifth Avenue & 57th Street, brownstone terraces on hot summer afternoons, cold beer and…
Pamela Harriman and the grandes horizontales
New York I’d gladly exchange waistlines with him if he’d teach me to cut a phrase the way he…
Why Teen Vogue should stick to lip gloss
Gstaad It’s my last week in the Alps, and the snow is gone, replaced by brilliant sunshine. Silence reigns, broken…
Why we should all tune in to Russia Today
A cloudless sky, crunchy spring snow, longer, warmer days. I’ve finally got in some good skiing, twisting around moguls like…
The unhealthy consequences of good health
At a chic dinner party last week, a friendly chow as big and black as a dog can be without…
Austerity has turned honest Greeks into criminals
A lousy fortnight if ever there was one. Two great friends, Lord Belhaven and Stenton and Aleko Goulandris, had their…
How to ski like a man
Gstaad Back in the good old days a funicular used to take skiers up, bucking all the way and stopping…
The wonder of Japan
From my chalet high up above the village, I look up at the immense, glistening mountain range of the Alps,…
Did I lock up a princess? She says I did
Gstaad One’s unpopularity on account of calling it a night diminishes in direct proportion to the severity of the next…
My advice to Trump: study President Nixon’s fall
When I was young my recurring nightmare was that I would die and be reincarnated as a polo pony. I…
Goodbye, sweet first editor: remembering Alexander Chancellor
When I saw an email from Lucy, the lady who has the unenviable task of editing my copy each week,…
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