Alexander Larman is an author and books editor of Spectator World, our US-based edition
It was a detail that most novelists or screenwriters would have rejected as being too much. Shortly after yesterday’s announcement that the Princess of Wales will be hospitalised for up to a fortnight after abdominal surgery at the London Clinic, a second proclamation was made. We learnt that King Charles is to attend hospital next
The Royal Family may have hoped that 2024 would begin in a quieter fashion than last year did, but if so, they must be disappointed. Once again, the reason for their unease is a revelatory book, this time Robert Hardman’s new biography Charles III: The Inside Story. First came the disclosure that the Queen was
Amidst the endless controversy that surrounds Harry and Meghan, there was at least one topic that seemed to be innocuous enough: the Christian name that they chose to give their now 2-year old daughter. She was named Lilibet, a reference to the childhood nickname Elizabeth II was given by her father George VI. The choice
During the eighteen months or so that Charles has reigned, there is a great deal to commend him for. Two confidently delivered King’s speeches at Christmas; a genuine interest at dealing with his subjects that far exceeds the often rote ‘Have you come far?’ formalism of his mother. There has even been a compassionate hand
Four days in, and 2024 shows every sign of being yet another annus horribilis for Prince Andrew. After – by his, admittedly reduced, standards – a triumphant Christmas, in which he processed to church at Sandringham with the rest of the Royal Family and, bizarrely, an apparently rehabilitated Fergie, the cold clear light of reality
If ever Prince Harry writes another volume of memoir, he may choose to look back on 2023 as his annus horribilis. The year began in high-profile fashion, with the publication of his autobiography Spare. This book swiftly became the fastest-selling non-fiction work of all time; he marked its appearance with promotional interviews that alternated between
King Charles has been a victim of his own success. His first Christmas broadcast last year, which was both affecting and socially conscious, attracted 10.6 million viewers, making it not only the most-watched monarch’s seasonal address since viewing records began, but also the most popular single programme to air over the festive period last year. The
Well, send him victorious-ish. In what amounts to an early Christmas present for Prince Harry, Mr Justice Fancourt has ruled today at the High Court that there was, in his stern description, ‘extensive’ phone hacking that took place at the Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) between 2006 to 2011, and even, hilariously, that this continued to
Say what you like about Netflix and Peter Morgan, the producers and creator of The Crown respectively, but they’ve certainly gone out in a blaze of either glory or outrage. The final six episodes of the sixth season were released separately to the first four, and it isn’t hard to see why. Taken cumulatively, their
There’s that well-known saying of ‘anything you can do, I can do better’. In what can only be an attempt to upstage the official Royal Family’s latest offering, this seems to be the credo of Harry and Meghan as they release a new, wholly vainglorious video showing the ‘impact’ of the Archewell foundation in 2023.
Generations of readers of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five series have enjoyed the books without having to contemplate the erotic properties of the canine member of the quintet. After reading Nicholas Royle’s one-of-a-kind fantasia on Blyton and David Bowie, they may never be able to do so again. Royle writes confidently that ‘the most obvious route
Ever since 2021’s absurd Oprah Winfrey interview, in which the Duchess of Sussex coyly suggested that a member of the Royal Family had speculated about what colour her then-unborn first child’s skin would be, there has been an egregious fascination with the identity of the notorious figure known only as ‘the royal racist’. Speculation has
Omid Scobie’s Endgame is now available from a bookshop near you, and no doubt republicans and admirers of Harry and Meghan alike will be flocking to buy it on the day of release, gleeful to soak up the revelations about the Royal Family. For the rest of us, the appeal is less clear. The book’s
The name ‘Omid Scobie’ must be one of the least popular ever uttered in Buckingham and St James Palaces. Not only was the royal reporter’s bestselling 2020 book Finding Freedom a firmly partisan account of Harry and Meghan’s quasi-abdication – and, it later transpired in court, assisted by someone close to the Duchess, so that
Since 2016, we have cultivated a new national pastime: moaning about the latest series of The Crown. Every time Netflix’s royal soap opera appears on our screens, we become united in our determination to spot errors of fact and taste in Peter Morgan’s show, ranging from the trivial to the major. No wonder that Morgan,
For those of us who believed that hell would freeze over before the Duke of Sussex was welcomed back into the bosom of his family, it will have come as a surprise when it was revealed that Prince Harry would be telephoning King Charles on his 75th birthday this week. It has been reported that
Happy birthday, Your Majesty. The King turns 75 today but the celebrations will be muted: Charles is spending the day launching the Coronation Food Project, which is designed to deal with the pressing issue of food shortages throughout the country. He’ll also be hosting a reception for NHS nurses and midwives. For a monarch who has been accused of
Prince Harry has won a small victory in his High Court battle: a judge ruled this morning that his privacy case against Associated Newspapers, the publishers of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, can proceed to trial. Harry is part of a group of seven, including Doreen Lawrence and Sir Elton John, who have
The King’s speech was a damp squib – but for that we should blame Rishi Sunak rather than Charles III. Most of the announcements – from tougher prison sentences to cracking down on smoking – were already known about. But while the Prime Minister’s agenda was far from inspiring, today’s pomp and ceremony did give
It was no coincidence that Kenya was chosen for King Charles’s first state visit as monarch outside Europe. After all, it was at the Treetops hotel in Aberdare National Park on 6 February 1952 that his mother acceded to the throne. As the politician and diarist Harold Nicholson quipped, ‘She became Queen while perched in
