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Alexander Larman

Alexander Larman

The Telegraph

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Charles III delights ‘No Kings’ Democrats

President Trump lavished praise upon King Charles from the Oval Office at the outset of his four-day state visit to the United States. He called the...

latest 6

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Waitrose must leave bad taste in the Eighties

Should you visit your local Waitrose store this week – and hope you don’t witness an altercation between a shoplifter and a member of staff about...

yesterday 9

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

The decline of the royal biography

About a decade ago, with my writing career going nowhere fast, I received some savvy advice from my then-literary agent. “Write about the royal...

yesterday 6

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

What a tip / Gordon Ramsay and the tyranny of the restaurant service charge

The news that Gordon Ramsay – that most self-publicising of restaurateurs – has increased service charges at his Lucky Cat restaurant in the City...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Russell Brand is everything that is wrong with the world

Russell Brand is everything that is wrong with the world

There are few stranger public careers than that of Russell Brand, the former ‘comedian’ turned MAGA cheerleader-in-chief. He has given an...

25.04.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

What Prince Harry has in common with Boris Johnson

It has, on balance, been one of Prince Harry’s busier fortnights in recent times. As if to upstage his father’s state visit to the United States...

25.04.2026 9

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Russell Brand is everything that is wrong with the world

Russell Brand is everything that is wrong with the world

There are few stranger public careers than that of Russell Brand, the former ‘comedian’ turned MAGA cheerleader-in-chief. He has given an...

23.04.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

The decline of the country house hotel

For decades, the idea of the country house hotel – a uniquely British phenomenon – has held a seductive sway for those who would never dream,...

22.04.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

The decline of the royal biography

About a decade ago, with my writing career going nowhere fast, I received some savvy advice from my then-literary agent. “Write about the royal...

22.04.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Has Andrew tarnished Queen Elizabeth’s legacy?

Today marks the centenary of Elizabeth II’s birth. Less than four years after she died, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch is still regarded with...

21.04.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Oxford needs to fight back against the university

The news that the original Oxfam bookshop on St Giles in Oxford is not to close is not just a relief, but a rare victory in the ongoing battles...

19.04.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

The banality of Meghan the Martyr

The great Dolly Parton once quipped “get down off your cross, honey, someone needs the wood.” This remark, aimed at attention-seeking...

17.04.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

What’s the point of the Sussexes’ undignified Australia tour?

Not since the First Fleet arrived at Botany Bay in 1788 has a visit to Australia been so eagerly awaited as that of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex....

15.04.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Will genteel customers desert Waitrose?

One of the disadvantages of having a daughter who is both given to wayward behaviour in public and named Rose is that my increasingly frantic...

13.04.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Why is Prince Harry being sued by Sentebale?

It must be unpleasant to be Prince Harry at the moment. Not only is he waiting on the judgement of Mr Justice Nicklin for his class action...

11.04.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

The Magic Faraway Tree is aimed at anxious parents not children

My ten-year-old daughter Rose is a thoroughly modern child in many respects but one endearingly old-fashioned characteristic that she has is a deep...

08.04.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

The blessing and burden of belief to David Lodge

When most readers think of the late novelist David Lodge, it is his peerlessly funny and incisive campus novels, such as Changing Places and Small...

05.04.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Does Prince Harry regret his ‘Mr. Mischief’ messages?

Prince Harry used to be fun. It is easy to forget this given the Meghan-Montecito-highly litigious incarnation of the Duke of Sussex, but there was a...

02.04.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Does Prince Harry regret his ‘Mr Mischief’ messages?

Prince Harry used to be fun. It is easy to forget this given the Meghan-Montecito-highly litigious incarnation of the Duke of Sussex, but there was a...

01.04.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Have Beatrice and Eugenie been cast out into the cold?

The news that Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie will not be attending the royal family’s Easter service at St George’s chapel in Windsor might...

31.03.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Is HBO’s Harry Potter series a worthwhile gamble?

The actor Andrew Garfield attracted some controversy recently when, promoting his new family film The Magic Faraway Tree, he revealed that he had seen...

31.03.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Eyes wide open / Looking back at Eyes Wide Shut, after Epstein

The constant parade of shocking and disturbing revelations from the Epstein files has been going on for a considerable time now. It shows no signs of...

29.03.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Looking back at Eyes Wide Shut, after Epstein

The constant parade of shocking and disturbing revelations from the Epstein files has been going on for a considerable time now. It shows no signs of...

26.03.2026 40

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

King Charles’s US state visit was never in doubt

Mark Twain famously wrote that “rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated”, and similar rumors have proliferated about King Charles’s...

26.03.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Who would trust Stephen Colbert with Lord of the Rings?

Stephen Colbert is many things – late-night host, perpetual thorn in the side of President Trump and, some would suggest, a comedian – but few...

26.03.2026 30

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Can London’s favourite restaurateur save Simpson’s?

When you think about Simpson’s in the Strand (never Simpson’s on the Strand), it is impossible to consider the 198-year-old restaurant without...

24.03.2026 30

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Should we pay for Harry and Meghan’s security?

After a period of several months in which attention has been mainly focused not on Prince Harry but on his uncle, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the...

23.03.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

There’s no need to cancel Charles’s US state visit

The so-called ‘special relationship’ between Britain and the United States seems to have reached a historically unspecial nadir, in large part...

19.03.2026 20

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Oscars night was one yawn after another

The results of this year’s Oscars were so predictable as to be entirely unexciting. Months ago, the pundits had called the major results: Paul...

17.03.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Film / The Oscars was as exciting as a Keir Starmer speech

The results of this year’s Oscars were so predictable as to be entirely unexciting. Months ago, the pundits had called the major results: Paul...

16.03.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Bring back the book launch

Last week, I had the pleasure of heading to the Freud Museum in Hampstead for the launch of Zoe Strimpel’s much-discussed new book Good Slut. Not...

10.03.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

The awkward truth about Charles’s Commonwealth message

Under normal circumstances, King Charles’s message to the Commonwealth would be a carefully crafted and anodyne series of platitudes, designed for...

09.03.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Serge Gainsbourg would not survive modern France

Yesterday marked the 35th anniversary of the death of Serge Gainsbourg at 62 from a heart attack. The only real surprise is that he ever made it to...

03.03.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Has SNL gone too far?

It has been a very long time since Saturday Night Live was in the headlines for a good reason (probably Nate Bargatze’s first hosting stint in...

03.03.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Why are Parisians so awful?

I have recently returned from a fleeting visit to the City of Light. As usual, Paris itself was a delight. It is an architectural and historic...

25.02.2026 20

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is on his own

For future royal historians, the date 19 February may take on the same totemic significance as the abdication of Edward VIII on 10 December. It was...

20.02.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

The demise of the first Oxfam bookshop would be a catastrophe

The news that Oxford’s main Oxfam bookshop on St Giles in the city has been threatened with closure is one of the most depressing things I have...

20.02.2026 20

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

The seismic arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor

Ever since the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, no member of the royal family has been arrested, which makes this morning’s news that Andrew...

19.02.2026 150

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

The seismic arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor

Ever since the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, no member of the Royal Family has been arrested. Which makes this morning’s news that Andrew...

19.02.2026 150

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Is BrewDog finished?

The news that the Scottish beer company BrewDog has put itself up for sale has been greeted with a mixture of sorrow and shrugs by drinks commentators...

18.02.2026 20

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Robert Duvall was one of the Hollywood greats

The death of the actor Robert Duvall at the age of 95 – almost exactly a year after that of his friend Gene Hackman – brings to the end another...

17.02.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

The battle for Britain’s oldest Indian restaurant

There are relatively few restaurants in London – or anywhere else, for that matter – that have made it to their centenary. There are even fewer...

17.02.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Is it time to scrub Andrew from the line of succession?

The sheer weight of allegations against Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor – all tawdry, all sordid – runs the risk of creating not so much outrage as...

16.02.2026 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

The golden years of David Bowie

This year marks the anniversaries of two of David Bowie’s most compelling and powerful albums: 1976’s Station to Station and 2016’s Blackstar....

13.02.2026 150

The Spectator

Alexander Larman