New York: the fact – and fiction
New York At times I used to think the place was real. The New York of films, that is. The…
Human evolution: a short essay
This makes Brexit take a back seat: hints of ancient life have appeared on Mars. Carbon building blocks and other…
An extraordinary encounter in a New York taxi
New York If I wrote this in one of those newspaper diaries about metropolitan life, no one would believe…
I love life – and girls – too much to act my age
New York A little Austrian count was born to my daughter last week in Salzburg, early in the morning of…
Trump has driven the American media mad
New York An old-fashioned party is a gathering of friends invited by the host or hostess, who foots the…
A love letter to Brooklyn Heights
New York I now know it by heart. Brooklyn Heights, that is. It takes 35 minutes by cab from where…
Requiem for New York
New York In the dark she still looks good. The mystery and magnetism linger until dawn, then you slowly…
Why truth gets you nowhere
New York There is fear and loathing in this city, with men looking over their shoulders for the thought…
Partying with the Clintons
Gstaad The bells are ringing, the bells are ringing, ding dong, ding dong. The cows are down from up…
If Jeremy Corbyn gets in, then I’m out
To London for much too brief a visit: a marriage, lunch with Commodore Tim Hoare, and a look-see for a…
I’m an equal of Socrates and Wittgenstein — and if anyone disputes it they can go to hell
The grandest view of Gstaad and the surrounding Saanen valley bar none — and that includes the vista from my…
An audience with the Pope
Perception and reality, truth and falsehood, black and white; nowadays the salivating chattering classes don’t know their arse from a…
My faux pas at the Duke of Beaufort’s bash
A letter from a reader in South Africa mentions that the writer’s father insisted a white dinner jacket was permissible…
The joy of a Greek summer
Some jerk know-nothing writes in an unreadable American newspaper that Greece is back — Athens, actually. He would, he’s an…
Wild flowers and mountain peaks are no substitute for a pretty woman
Gstaad The pastoral heaven of this place can get very dull during the summer months. Green hillsides, neat farmsteads, pleasing…
My marriage secret? I’m a faithless husband, but a good one
This was a real surprise, and on my birthday (11 August) to boot: a grown man, whose parents I used…
The case for bringing back feudalism
Gstaad I need it like Boris needs a bleach job. Another birthday, that is. Birthdays tend to make your life…
Amazon and Facebook: the twin evils of our age
They used to say that the primary function of a boat was to be beautiful. I suppose that is why…
Sailing past the charred eastern coast of Greece
On board S/Y Puritan I’m sailing off the charred eastern coast of Athens where so many died last week,…
The books and novelists I have read
Reading is the best antidote to debauchery I know of, and I’ve been hitting the books lately. History mostly. Once…
Watch out, London: I might be moving back
New York I am seriously thinking of moving back to London. The family insists on it. New York, they say,…
Why I am not drinking for the rest of the year
What a week this has been! What a great mood I’m in! Why, it’s almost like being in bed… with…
The limitations of left-wing hacks
Oh, to be in England, and almost die of heat after the Austrian Alps. Yes, Sarah Sands was right in…
Is it time to move to Austria?
Schloss Wolfsegg I was watching two very old men slowly approaching the open doors of the Pilatus airplane I…
The Bible’s #MeToo problem
New York I write this on my last day in the Bagel, and it sure is a scorcher, heat and…
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