Alexander Larman

Alexander Larman is an author and books editor of Spectator World, our US-based edition

It’s hard not to feel sorry for Prince William

For all his wealth and privilege, it is hard to imagine wanting to be Prince William. Not only was he irrevocably changed by his mother’s tragic death when he was aged 15, but the past year alone has seen his wife and father diagnosed with cancer. His ongoing estrangement from his embarrassing younger brother continues

Is King Charles’s honeymoon over?

Since King Charles became monarch in September 2022, after the death of Elizabeth II, he has received reasonably warm treatment from the press. It is easy to forget that, for much of the 1990s and 2000s, he was seen as an unpopular figure, lambasted by the Diana-supporting tabloids for being an adulterer (never mind his

History has been cruel to Wallis Simpson

If there is one thing that Paul French’s forthcoming book Her Lotus Year should put right about Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, it is that her so-called ‘lotus year’ in China in the 1920s was not the sexual bacchanal that it has been painted as by the prurient and the envious. Instead it was

King Charles’s carefully worded reparations speech

For his first formal address as head of the Commonwealth, King Charles would probably have preferred to veer away from controversy. Unfortunately, delivering an anodyne and people pleasing speech was not on the agenda.  Ever since it was announced that Samoa would be hosting a gathering of the 56 Commonwealth countries, it was inevitable that

Boris never had a chance of convincing Prince Harry to stay

Strange though it might seem now, at the beginning of 2020 Boris Johnson came close to achieving his childhood ambition of being ‘World King’. Johnson had led the Conservative party to its first decent majority since 1987 the previous month, was in the process of ‘getting Brexit done’ with an ‘oven-ready deal’ and was airily

Morrissey’s martyrdom knows no bounds

Say what you like about Steven Patrick Morrissey – lead singer of The Smiths, the Mancunian miserabilist, ‘the Pope of Mope’ etc – but he has a knack, nearly four decades after his band dissolved acrimoniously, for coming out with attention- and headline-grabbing pronouncements. At first glance these declarations might seem like revelatory news stories,

The wickedness of Mohamed Al Fayed

The allegations against Mohamed Al Fayed are dreadful: the former Harrods owner has been accused of raping five women and sexually abusing at least 15 others when they worked at his department store. A BBC investigation, which detailed the allegations, claimed that this abuse took place from the late 1980s to the 2000s. The name

There’s nothing cool about Starbucks

If you’ve ever visited Starbucks, you may enjoy the overpriced coffees or bewildering assortment of half-sweet, half-savoury drinks – espresso frappuccino, anyone? But you may also agree with a mystery shopper who said: ‘It can feel transactional, menus can feel overwhelming, product is inconsistent, the wait too long or the handoff too hectic.’ Anyone with

Is this the worst tribute so far to Queen Elizabeth II?

An official tribute to the late, much-missed Queen Elizabeth II will, in years to come, be unveiled in London’s St James’s Park. But progress on the memorial is far from speedy. The design of the statue or sculpture will not be revealed by the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee until 2026. Even then, there is every

Prince Harry isn’t coming back any time soon

The Duke of Wellington famously suggested that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton. To this day, something happens in the hallowed cloisters of the nation’s most famous public school that brings out qualities in its pupils that no other educational establishment can muster. I refer, of course, to those

The slow death of Star Wars

The video game Star Wars Outlaws is to be released this week. The game is set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi – so in the universe of the original, still-greatest film trilogy – and has been several years in development. According to its ‘narrative director’ Navid Khavari, ‘We didn’t just

The horrors of an Oasis reunion

Twenty years ago, I suffered through seeing Oasis perform at Glastonbury. It remains one of the worst, if not the worst, large-scale gigs of its kind that I have ever been to. Liam Gallagher had all the animation and charm of an Easter Island statue, standing stock-still in the centre of the stage and looking

Is Prince Andrew finally getting the boot from Windsor?

After a relatively quiet few months for Prince Andrew, there have been two recent developments that will no doubt make this famously un-sweaty man feel a nervous chill. Firstly, following the mixed response that Scoop, the first account of his notorious interview with Emily Maitlis, received, the first pictures have been released of the Amazon