Alexander Larman is an author and books editor of Spectator World, our US-based edition
For all his many faults, Vladimir Putin is not without a jet-black sense of humour. The Russian president has given Donald Trump a painting. Many might have expected this to be a traditional piece of Russian art, depicting some rural scene, or perhaps something more avant-garde, from the contemporary Moscow movement. But no; Putin has
Every Christmas, Easter and other public gathering, the Royal Family are faced with an unfortunate choice: what to do about the two pariahs in their midst? One of them, Prince Harry, is sulkily ensconced in Montecito, and tends mainly to pop up in this country when he’s fighting yet another legal battle. The other, however,
The admission by Toby Carvery that it chopped down an ancient oak tree overlooking one of its pubs has outraged anyone who cares about arboreal preservation, British heritage and decent food and drink – not necessarily in that order. The Mitchells and Butlers group, which owns Toby Carvery, issued a statement saying that the tree
At the beginning of the debut episode of Meghan Markle’s new podcast, she is keen to assert her own identity. After flirting with tradwifedom in her most recent Netflix show With Love, Meghan, she is now casting off her brief nomenclature of ‘Meghan Sussex’, but nor should you refer to The Artist Formerly Known As The Duchess
After some recent bad news for King Charles in the form of an – admittedly fleeting – setback in his ongoing cancer treatment, you could hardly blame him for wanting a brief respite from the gruelling health challenges that he has faced. And respites don’t come more glamorous or enjoyable than the state visit that
There is a decent chance that most Spectator readers have seen at least one of the following: the much-ballyhooed Adolescence, the rather less controversial Black Doves, and the once-magnificent, latterly tawdry The Crown. From the travails of royalty to the horrors of a child killer, via the acrobatic derring-do of unusually witty spies, these shows
As flies are to wanton boys, so Prince Harry is to the British legal system. Amidst perhaps the most serious reputational controversy that the Duke of Sussex has yet faced – the Sentebale drama – Harry will be returning to the Court of Appeal in London next week. There he will attempt to overturn the High Court’s
My home city of Oxford has been ravaged by shop closures over the past decade but there is still one outstanding second-hand bookshop (the estimable antiquarian department at Blackwell’s apart) and it’s the Oxfam bookshop on St Giles. Thanks to a regular donations from dons and writers, there are invariably high-quality and interesting items on
On April Fool’s Day, it is all too appropriate that the latest announcement from the Duchess of Sussex has the grim air of a not particularly funny joke. Yet in her newsletter – her newsletter – Meghan has let it be known to her adoring public, or at least the Sussex Squad, that they, too, ‘can mimic the
The news released last night that King Charles had been briefly hospitalised was an unwelcome surprise. A statement from the royal communications department tersely declared that: The public cannot expect minute-by-minute updates as to every aspect of the monarch’s condition Following scheduled and ongoing medical treatment for cancer this morning, the King experienced temporary side
Prince Harry has had an eventful couple of years. There was the controversy-studded publication of his memoir Spare and a plethora of court cases, the highest-profile of which was resolved earlier this year. After all that, the Duke of Sussex might be forgiven for wishing to keep a low profile for the rest of 2025.
Earlier this week, I tried and failed to purchase a couple of items from the As Ever range that the Duchess of Sussex has been touting in her ill-fated Netflix show. I shan’t lie, Spectator readers; my dedication to bringing you the latest hard-hitting investigative news was tempered by the hope that such condiments as
It is a requirement of the Royal Family that they should remain politically neutral. They are, after all, the only family in the United Kingdom who are constitutionally not allowed to vote. However, this does not stop its various members from having opinions and expressing them, sometimes in embarrassing and distinctly un-regal fashions. Whether it’s
‘Success’, Winston Churchill supposedly once remarked, ‘is the ability to go from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.’ If this is indeed the case, then Meghan Markle’s 2025 thus far represents a remarkable series of triumphs and victories. After her recent Netflix series With Love, Meghan received reviews that ranged from the merely sarcastic
Is this really the King’s favourite music? If you’ve ever had sleepless nights wondering what King Charles’s favourite tunes are, Apple has now come to your rescue. A selection has been put out on Apple Music, grandiloquently entitled ‘His Majesty King Charles III’s Playlist’, and the monarch has put out a brief statement to explain
Whenever I’m walking down Cornmarket Street in Oxford – an otherwise unlovely thoroughfare – there is something about the spectacle of the enormous Greggs there that gladdens my soul. Compared to all the other overpriced, depressing places that sell lunchtime sandwiches in the area – I popped into Pret the other day and was astonished
So here it is, the undistinguished thing, at last. I had hopes that, after its postponement because of the Californian fires, Meghan Markle’s new reality show With Love, Meghan, would quietly disappear from the schedules. These hopes were, as usual, disappointed. Not only has the programme arrived on Netflix as a simultaneous worldwide premiere, but
The death of the painter Jack Vettriano at the age of 73 is sure to delight at least one art critic: the Guardian’s Jonathan Jones. Jones has consistently attacked the creator of The Singing Butler, Britain’s best-selling single image, as ‘brainless’ and ‘not even an artist’. He derided his work as ‘a crass male fantasy
It is always nice to have a personal connection to the Oscars, however slight and fleeting it might be; hearing Conclave screenwriter give a shout-out to my daughter’s godfather Simon during his acceptance speech for Best Adapted Screenplay was a deeply pleasurable moment. Yet this joyful touch aside, what had initially looked like one of
This weekend marks perhaps the most turbulent 48 hours that Ukraine’s President Zelensky has ever experienced – and, given the events of the past three years, that is saying an awful lot. After his already notorious reception in Washington at the White House in Friday, and rather more emollient greeting by Keir Starmer in Britain
