F. Scott Fitzgerald
The fresh hell of Dorothy Parker’s Hollywood
Though well paid as a screenwriter, Parker lampooned Hollywood’s moguls, dubbing MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Merde as she slipped further into alcoholism
The books that made me who I am
Gstaad This is my last week in the Alps and I’m trying to get it all in – skiing, cross-country,…
Raymond Chandler and his contrarian cat Taki
Gstaad That’s all we needed in a great year: copyright has expired on The Great Gatsby. Some Fitzgerald wannabe has…
The golden age of nightclubs
I find myself detached from mainstream culture. It started with the demise of nightclubs like Annabel’s and the arrival of…
Taki, the greatest literary critic of our time, picks Fitzgerald’s greatest novel
An operation on my hand after a karate injury has had me reading more than usual. I even attempted Don…
Working is good for you — even if it’s unpaid, in a charity shop — or writing book reviews for The Spectator
Work is a funny old thing — a four-letter word to some, the meaning of life to others. There have…
The Great Gatsby meets Fifty Shades of Oligarch
It’s surprising there haven’t been more novels drawing on London’s fascination with Russian oligarchs. But how to write about them…
My addiction to literary pilgrimage is akin to masturbation
The hotel and its bright tan prayer rug of a beach were one. In the early morning the distant image…
Once upon a time, when a poor farmer came to the big city he put on his only suit
The leaves are falling non-stop, like names dropped in Hollywood, and it has suddenly turned colder than the look I…
Does the world need 17 volumes of Hemingway's letters?
‘In the years since 1961 Hemingway’s reputation as “the outstanding author since the death of Shakespeare” shrank to the extent…
A Trip to Echo Spring, by Olivia Laing - review
The boozer’s life is one of low self-esteem and squalid self-denial. It was memorably evoked by Charles Jackson in his…
