Athens, Greece

Greece, Then and Now

ATHENS—Standing right below the Acropolis, where pure democracy began because public officials were elected by lot, I try to imagine if random political selection today would be ...

Coco Gauff

Tennis Jerks and ‘Speccie’ Perks

Martina Navratilova has never been shy telling it like it is. She came out when other athletes were hiding in their lockers, and recently spoke out against men transitioning into ...

Kerkyra, Corfu

Electoral Chitchat

Now it can be told! A Boris ex I sat next to last week gave me the scoop: He is absentminded, he’s disorganized, and he drops wine on sofas—hold the presses, this is a world ...

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Portrait by François Gérard (1808)

Leonidas Said It Best

The Duke of Marlborough gave a toast last week that brought the house down during a Turning Point dinner for those of us resolved to end the threat of cultural Marxism once and ...

Tusmore Park

What a Week

Bellamy’s and Oswald’s are the two best restaurants in London. Owned by two friends of mine, both gents, both English, the service and the food are as good as it gets, and it ...

Boris Johnson

Tories and Tennis

A lady once offered to go to bed with me if I could ensure her landing The Spectator’s diary. This was some time ago, but what I clearly recall is that I didn’t even try. To ...

Il Duce

Baptism by Flier

They were putting the finishing touches on the giant tent as I drove up to the Schloss Wolfsegg after an hour’s plane ride from Gstaad to a tiny nearby airport. With me were my ...

Ernest Hemingway

The Papa Connection

I didn’t like it, and then I liked it. But a writer’s job is to tell the truth, as Papa said back in 1942. Hemingway maintained that it was bad luck to talk about ...

Conrad Black

Black’s Life Matters

Goody, goody gumdrops! The Donald has pardoned Lord Black and I couldn’t be happier. Conrad got a bum deal and spent three and a half years behind bars for charges I always ...

Grand Central Station

Adios, Manhattan

This is my last week in the Bagel and I’m going to give it the old college try. Two weeks without booze, ciggies, or ladies have made Taki a very dull boy. The next seven ...

Richard Rodgers, Irving Berlin, Oscar Hammerstein II, and Helen Tamiris

Actually Great Theater

Here’s a question for you: If your wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend, even toy boy lied repeatedly to you about a serious matter such as fidelity, would you continue to trust ...

Big Man on Campus

Charlottesville is an enchanting Virginia college town graced by the neoclassical architecture of the university’s founder, Thomas Jefferson. I flew there with two friends, the ...

Feel Free Again

NEW YORK—David Niven’s younger son Jamie, now an old man like yours truly and a bit overweight, approached my table and announced he had seen a video of me lunching elsewhere ...

What’s the Next Fake News?

NEW YORK—On April 21, 1980, Rosie Ruiz won the fabled Boston Marathon in record time and looked fresh as a daisy when the media descended on her following her crowning with a ...

We’re All Harvey Weinsteins Now

Okay, chaps, keep your hands where people can see them, and don’t touch. And try not to look. Soon that too will be a crime, so keep your eyes on the ground and you’ll be ...

A Tale of Extravagant Greed

I first met the man whose opioid products have supposedly killed 200,000 Americans 51 years ago, at the Hotel du Cap-d’Antibes. Mortimer Sackler looked old even back then, had a ...


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