Revisiting The Gentlemen's Clubs of London by Anthony Lejeune From 1980, to re-edition in 2012

  From 1980, to re-edition in 2012

Clubland is another country, redolent of the past but, for its few thousand often influential inhabitants, an integral part of life. It is a place either luxurious or a bit shabby, full of serendipitous historical relics and portraiture accumulated over three centuries, offering splendid wine and food at various levels of delight and disappointment. Covering more than 30 clubs, The Gentlemen s Clubs of London is illustrated with new photography, archival material and engravings of both grand vistas and quaint details. The narrative is a distillation of old records and recollections, published histories and accounts, clubland anecdotes and not least the author s own experience as a veteran clubman of many years standing. For those who have never stepped inside clubland s marble halls, there will be many revelations for clubmen themselves, the chance to exalt the advantages or bemoan the peculiarities of their own institution. With its beautiful new photography and archival material, this is a book to treasure.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gentlemens-Clubs-London-Anthony-Lejeune/dp/190676820X

Review

THREE CENTURIES OF COMFORTABLE SANCTUARY

 The clubs of London - for nearly three centuries home from home to a remarkable range of characters - have never looked more inviting than in this sumptuously illustrated volume, a long-awaited new edition of a book first published in 1979. The Garrick with its glorious theatrical paintings, Boodle's with fires burning in the grates and impressive red leather chairs, the Reform with its abundance of marble, the Oxford and Cambridge with its white and gold Saloon, the Travellers with the most beautiful columned library in London, and the Beefsteak with an open timbered roof like a medieval great hall: with the loss of so many aristocratic mansions between the two world wars and the devastation of the City's livery halls during the Blitz, these are London's grandest and best- furnished interiors. London clubs owe their origin in large part to a hospitable Scotsman William Macall who created Almack's, for a while the capital's most fashionable assembly rooms. In Pall Mall he appointed Edward Boodle to run one part and William Brooks ran the other. Though it sounds like an 18th-century club, Buck's was conceived in 1918 in war-ravaged France by Captain Herbert Buckmaster and other young Blues officers who decided that if they made it back to England they would start a club. This they did the following June in an 18th-century terrace house still retaining the atmosphere of a home. P. G. Wodehouse was to say in old age that, apart from its lack of a swimming pool, Buck's was the nearest thing to his idea of the Drones Club. White's, the oldest surviving club, started life in 1693 as White's Chocolate House, run by Francesco Bianco. The RAF Club began with a £350,000 gift from Viscount Cowdray which enabled the club to buy the lease of 128 Piccadilly and is now kept alive by the largest membership of any club - 17,000 and almost 8,000 associate members. The Caledonian Club, founded in 1891, came to its present premises in 1946, a splendid Georgian Revival mansion of 1912 built as a very grand private house. The kitchens of the Reform Club designed for the club's famous chef Alexis Soyer were 'spacious as a ballroom and white as a young bride' according to Viscountess Mandeville. The Guards Club owed its foundation in 1810 to the concern of the Prince Regent and the Duke of Wellington who felt that Guards' officers returning from Spain needed an alternative to the gambling hells in St James's and the chop-houses and taprooms where they were wont to get into drunken brawls. The Garrick was founded in 1831 by the writer and art collector Francis Mills as a 'society in which actors and men of education and refinement might meet on equal terms' and moved to its splendid palazzo in 1864. Lejeune tells a nice story of two Guards' officers who sank into comfortable armchairs at the Oxford and Cambridge Club (while their own club was closed). One exclaimed: 'These middle class fellows know how to do themselves well.' Slowly the elderly member opposite lowered his newspaper to reveal the Duke of Wellington, Chancellor of Oxford University. To Lejeune one club is superior to all others - White's. When an anxious member asked Wheeler, the genial long-serving barman, if the bar was still open, he replied, 'Bless my soul, sir, it has been open for 200 years'. --The Times

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gentlemens-Clubs-London-Anthony-Lejeune/dp/190676820X#customerReviews

"Great idea, very poor book"

By Paul C on 3 Jun 2012

"I was hugely looking forward to this book, and became progressively more annoyed when its publication date kept being pushed back by months at a time. The reason soon became clear. This has all the hallmarks of a rush job, with an increasingly grumpy publisher eventually forcing his author to produce enough words whatever the cost to quality or accuracy. The introduction to the text - a great chance to reflect on the revival of clubland since the original edition of the early 1980s - is very disappointing. Its byline - Anthony Lejeune and Friends - smacks of aforementioned bodge job. The pieces on the individual clubs are lacklustre cut-and-paste rehashes of the original edition. Most information included is available for free on Wikipedia. The new photographs are lovely but some pages of plates are filled out with pictures of random items that are only tangentially relevant to the subject in hand. Hugely disappointing and a waste of (rather a lot) of money."

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gentlemens-Clubs-London-Anthony-Lejeune/dp/190676820X#customerReviews

"Disappointingly full of errors"

By C W. Raper on 9 May 2012

"What a shame. The issue of an updated version of Anthony Lejeune's classic book on London Clubs should have been a great opportunity to celebrate the survival of so many of them, and to produce new photographs. The photographs are there, but the rest is a great disappointment. The text is a bowdlerised version of the original, lacking much of its wit. There are some odd omissions (why has the RAC been dropped?). And there are far, far too many unforgivable mistakes. A bust of Hermes in the Library at the Travellers' is described as "the head of a beautiful woman". The late Victorian drawing room of the Oxford and Cambridge Club, originally part of the house of Princess Marie Louise, is described as being by Smirke. The fireplaces in the same room are dated to a decision of the Committee in 1836... One could go on.

The new photos are generally excellent, but really this is a sloppy production that does no favours to Anthony Lejeune's reputation. The original version of the book can still be bought second-hand, and is a much better purchase."

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gentlemens-Clubs-London-Anthony-Lejeune/dp/190676820X#customerReviews

A Gentleman's London, Episode Four: Kent & Haste

Kent & Haste, Bespoke Tailors of The Duke of Edinburgh

John Kent

https://www.kenthaste.co.uk/about/john-kent/

 

“If you would be guided by me…” John Kent began his training as a 15 year old apprentice in the East End of London at Bernard’s Bethnal Green. After five years he transferred to the West End, furthering his knowledge of cassocks, frock coats and gaiters for the revered Ecclesiastical and Court tailor Adeney & Boutrey (estd 1775), where he made breeches for the then Archbishop of Canterbury.

 

In 1966 he moved to Military and Royal tailor Hawes and Curtis. It was here that he met shirtmaker Stephen Lachter and Terry Haste who would go on to succeed Kent as head cutter. At this time The Duke of Edinburgh patronised Hawes and Curtis where Kent had the privilege of making the trousers for His Royal Highness. Kent continues to tailor for The Duke to this day; his services have been recognised with the Royal Warrant which he still holds.

 

In 1986 together with Stephen Lachter, Kent set up his own eponymous business. In 2010 they were joined by their old colleague Terry Haste and opened a shop in New Burlington Street before moving to large premises at number 7 Sackville Street. Clientele HRH Duke of Edinburgh, Sir Donald Sinden, Sir Alistair Cook, Sir Terence Rattigan, Burt Lancaster, Rod Steiger, Tony Curtis, Cary Grant, Bing Crosby, Lord Mountbatten and Arnaud Bamberger.

Profile: The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince of Style

29TH OCTOBER 2015 / https://savilerow-style.com/profiles/aristocracy/the-duke-of-edinburgh/

 

The Duke of Edinburgh has never been cast as a fashion figure, but he could well be seen as a pin-up. Prince Philip typifies the restrained, even wary approach to clothes of the typical English gentleman, which appeals to men – and women – around the globe. While much attention focuses upon the Royal women and what they wear, the Duke, like other male members of the Royal family, is now largely taken for granted but over the years has undoubtedly been a fine ambassador for Savile Row’s finest.

 

And just who is the finest so far as His Royal Highness is concerned? Well, John Kent has been his long-time tailor, a ball of energy, a tailor’s tailor, noted as a cheery chap with a fine line in old jokes. A few years back, he suffered a bout of illness and it was thought he would retire. But he bounced back and was re-appointed as the Duke’s tailor and Royal Warrant Holder. He is now based in Sackville Street, with his partner of many years, shirtmaker Stephen Lachter, and another tailor, Terry Haste, formerly with Huntsman, making up the Kent, Haste & Lachter company. “You have to be able to judge the moment,” he says, “as with all customers. If he has a lot on, an important meeting, then you act accordingly. But if he is relaxed and has time, he has a wonderful sense of humour.”

 

Starting in the Row nearly half a century ago, Kent gives credit to training under some of the stars of the tailoring hierarchy – the Stanbury’s, especially Fred, and the Helman’s, Burt and Harry. Now, he has a wide cross section of customers and remains busy. “We charge the sort of prices that I would be prepared to pay,” he emphasises, “not some of those silly sums.” His main piece of advice to those ordering a suit is to go for a British cloth. “The French and Italian cloths are lovely but they go for a softer finish. British cloths are firmer and they hold their shape longer.”

 

While Kent is responsible for the Duke’s civilian dress, his military requirements are covered by Davies & Son, and his naval dress covered by Gieves & Hawkes. In addition, there are Warrant Holders for ceremonial robes, kilts, waterproofs, hats, shoes, knitwear, boots, buttons and hairdressing, et al. They all have to have chalked up five years service already to attain a Warrant, and by definition they have to represent quality and reliability.

 

Ede & Ravenscroft is the Duke’s robe maker, one of the oldest of companies holding a Royal Warrant, dating back to 1689. All the ranks of dukes and earls and lesser mortals at major royal events are wearing ermine-trimmed robes made by them. This would be a somewhat limited market to sustain a company, given that robes have little use and so last a long time, but the company is also big in the legal world, and the clergy, and also in bespoke civilian tailoring. Though their main base is in ancient premises in the City of London, they have a fine building looking up Savile Row.

 

duke_twoThe Duke may no longer wish to bare his knees very often in public but Kinloch Anderson remains his kilt supplier, and of Scottish and Highland dress generally. From their Edinburgh base, the firm has made uniforms for all the famous Scottish regiments, kilts and trews, and such is the on-going appeal of Highland dress that they also send off to would-be Scots around the world. There is a bespoke and ready-to-wear service and they will supply in any tartan, and provide all the traditional accessories.

 

John Lobb Ltd is the shoemaker responsible for shoeing the royal feet, both Prince Phillip’s and the Prince of Wales’. This family bespoke business in a lovely old building on St James’s is not to be confused with the John Lobb that now belongs to the Hermes Group, making ready-to-wear shoes. Lobb’s bespoke may be identified by looking for the Royal Warrant insignia, and by experiencing the handmade quality of their shoes and boots. The founding John Lobb started the royal connection by making shoes for Edward VII, and a long line of famous folk have followed in his footsteps.

 

Though Lobb’s handmade boots are well up to withstanding rough terrain, they are really too elegant for mucky country wear. That’s the preserve of Hunter Boots, the wellington boot of choice by the Duke, and which has come into the fashion spotlight in recent years since being seen on model Kate Moss at mud-soaked Glastonbury. From its basic rubber design, as worn by troops in WWI and II, and throughout the British countryside, it has now moved into town in a blaze of colour and new designs. But plain black and green wellies remain the country choice, guaranteed not to frighten the horses.

 

The ultimate country accessory is the gun and a Purdey gun at that. Purdey celebrates its bi-centenary this year, and is listed under the Warrant heading of ‘sports, hobbies and entertainment’. It began life as a gunsmith and has continued to make the finest guns over the years, decorated with exquisite silver engraving work. To mark their anniversary, the company has launched a commemorative trio, sure to become collectors’ items. This includes two shotguns and a double rifle, each handmade and inlaid with gold engravings. In addition to guns, there are new Purdey collections of country clothing and accessories.

How Prince Philip Navigated the Most Challenging of Corporate Dress Codes

 

How do you convey royalty without overshadowing the most royal?

 

By Guy Trebay

Published April 9, 2021

Updated April 12, 2021

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/fashion/prince-philip-style.html

 

There is a moment in the first season of “The Crown” when the actor Matt Smith, as the perennially tetchy consort of Queen Elizabeth II, bristles at the constraints of his job. With a case of lockjaw severe enough to cause concern for his molars, Mr. Smith portrays the Duke of Edinburgh (whom the queen would not make a prince until five years after she succeeded to the throne) as an arch complainer, a man who views the 20th-century monarchy as little more than “a coat of paint” on a crumbling Empire.

 

“If the costumes are grand enough, if the tiaras sparkle enough, if the titles are preposterous enough, if the mythologies are incomprehensible enough, then all must be fine,” says Mr. Smith, playing the man who would become Prince Philip. And, as it turns out, the script got it mostly right. Prince Philip, who died at age 99 on April 9, may have been wrapped in a cloak of dramatic hooey to become a character in the hit Netflix series. Yet the role, as written, is rooted in established fact.

 

Headstrong by reputation, opinionated, notoriously brusque (and often, in public, misogynistic and racist), Prince Philip was also in important ways the model of a company man. By the time he stepped down from his official royal duties in August 2017, he had spent seven decades obediently working for the Firm, a term for the royal family credited to the Queen’s father, King George VI. Fulfilling the requirements of a job for which there is no precise standard, unless you consider second fiddle a job description, the prince slogged through a staggering 22,219 solo public engagements over his long lifetime. In doing so, he navigated the most challenging of corporate dress codes for more than 65 years.

 

The brief was clear from the outset: The queen’s consort should be impeccable yet unassuming, irreproachable in style without drawing your eye away from one of the richest, and certainly the most famous, women on earth. If the clothes Queen Elizabeth II wore in public were engineered to meet programmatic requirements — bright colors and lofty hats to make this diminutive human easy to spot; symbolically freighted jewelry (the Japanese pearl choker, the Burmese ruby tiara, the Obama brooch!); symbols and metaphors embroidered onto her gowns — those of Prince Philip were tailored to keep him faultlessly inconspicuous.

 

As a clotheshorse, he had certain natural advantages, of course.

 

“He was staggeringly good-looking, tall and athletic,” said Nick Sullivan, the creative director of Esquire. “That never does any harm when it comes to wearing clothes.”

 

Beyond that, though, were a series of confident and knowing choices. For decades, the prince’s suits were made for him by John N. Kent, a Savile Row artisan who began his tailoring apprenticeship at 15. The prince’s shirts came from Stephens Brothers, his bespoke shoes from the century-and-a-half old boot maker John Lobb. In the neatly folded white handkerchief Prince Philip habitually squared off in his breast pocket (another was kept in his trousers) could be seen a telling contrast with the dandyish puff of silk favored by his eldest son.

 

Unlike other members of the royal family whose tastes run to costly baubles and fine Swiss timepieces, Prince Philip habitually wore “a plain watch with a brown leather strap,” as the Independent once reported, and a copper bracelet intended to ease arthritis. He left his large hands free of jewelry and roughly manicured.

 

If he looked best in sporting clothes, it was because he was a true sportsman, captain of both the cricket and hockey teams at boarding school in Scotland, a polo player well past his 40s, an active participant in international coaching competitions until late in life.

 

He was also the only member of the Firm’s inner circle before Meghan Markle to have been foreign-born. This, too, may have given him a style advantage since it is often true that outsiders can bring a fresh eye to staid sartorial conventions, both enlivening and improving them. (It took the Japanese to explain denim to Americans and the Neapolitans to demonstrate for the English how to perfect English style.)

 

Search online and you will not find an image of Prince Philip committing a style solecism. There is never a novelty tie or a funny hat. For that matter, and except on obligatory state occasions, there is little enough of the comic operetta regalia beloved of Prince Philip’s uncle, Louis Mountbatten, the First Earl Mountbatten of Burma — no braiding, no frogging, no sashes or fringed and gilded epaulets.

 

The paradox of Prince Philip’s life may have been that, as the husband of a queen and father of a future king, he was essential to power although insignificant to its workings. And he often jokingly disparaged himself as the “world’s most experienced plaque unveiler.” Yet it was probably in that role that he did his best work for the family business, since a glimpse of this elegant and diffident man was the closest most Britons would ever come to royalty’s attenuated realities and burnished grandeur. In that sense, Prince Philip was never “dressed,” in any conventional manner so much as he was outfitted for purpose.

 

Correction: April 9, 2021

An earlier version of this article misidentified the actor who plays Prince Philip in the first season of "The Crown." He is Matt Smith, not Tobias Menzies.

Scoop | Official Trailer | Netflix / Scoop review: Netflix's Prince Andrew drama divides critics

Scoop review: Netflix's Prince Andrew drama divides critics - with some full of praise for 'brilliant' film while others claim it 'misses the point'

 

Scoop, which captures one of UK media's most famous moments, divided critics

 

By ELMIRA TANATAROVA

PUBLISHED: 10:46 BST, 5 April 2024 | UPDATED: 12:12 BST, 5 April 2024

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-13274917/scoop-netflix-critics-divided-prince-andrew-drama.html

 

Critics are divided over Netflix's drama Scoop - which recreates Prince Andrew's infamous 'car crash' Newsnight interview in 2019 - with some slamming the drama as 'surface level' while others have praised actors' 'note perfect' performances.

 

Standout scenes from Billie Piper as plucky booker Sam McAlister, Gillian Anderson as the savvy but sensible presenter Emily Maitlis and Rufus Sewell as the disgraced royal, were revered, with reviewers giving their compliments to the all-star cast.

 

But some remarked that the film felt like it 'missed the real story' and lacks the 'investigative spirit and sense of paranoia' that the story demands.

 

The movie aims to capture the tensions behind booking the Duke of York for the programme, where Maitlis discussed Virginia Giuffre's claims that she was forced to have sex with Andrew three times when she was 17 under the orders of Epstein, as well as the tension among the cast during the hour.

 

The discussion, in which Andrew made a series of claims - including insisting he couldn't have been with Virginia at the time of the alleged encounter because he was dining at a Pizza Express in Woking and that a medical condition left him unable to sweat - has since gained notoriety and is widely acknowledged to have embarrassed the royals.

 

Critics are divided over Netflix 's drama Scoop - which recreates Prince Andrew's infamous car-crash Newsnight interview in 2019 - with some slamming the drama as 'surface level' while others have praised actors' 'note perfect' performances

 

Critics are divided over Netflix 's drama Scoop - which recreates Prince Andrew's infamous car-crash Newsnight interview in 2019 - with some slamming the drama as 'surface level' while others have praised actors' 'note perfect' performances

 

The Radio Times's Patrick Cremona only gave Scoop two stars out of five, said that the film 'resembles little more than a functional recap' of the real events.

 

Writing in the Guardian, Peter Bradshaw - who gave it the same ranking - appeared to agree, slamming the movie as 'a laboriously acted and distinctly self-admiring, self-mythologising drama about the media, the royals and the media royals'.

 

Elsewhere however, Tim Robey, for the Telegraph, awarded it a five-star rating and delighted in its 'borderline-The-Thick-of-It fashion without going overboard'.

 

Following the Newsnight broadcast in November 2019 and the furore over Andrew's friendship with Epstein, the Duke stepped down from public life.

 

The interview was dubbed a 'car crash', with commentators questioning his responses and condemning his unsympathetic tone and lack of remorse over his friendship with the sex offender.

 

Maitlis has already served as an executive producer of a Channel 4 documentary about the interview.

 

Another drama about the interview, an Amazon series called A Very Royal Scandal starring Michael Sheen as Andrew and Ruth Wilson as Maitlis, is also in the works.

 

Scoop will air on Netflix on Friday April 5.

 

RADIO TIMES

Rating:

 Giving the film two stars, Patrick Cremona of Radio Times called it a 'well-executed act of mimicry' which 'feels rather pointless when the actual interview is readily available to watch in full'.

 

He explained that while Scoop aimed to tell the story of the women who secured the incredible story, the work felt much more focused on Prince Andrew's most bizarre moments during the Newsnight viewing.

 

'Scoop does occasionally touch on interesting themes, including the impact of frequent and ongoing cuts to journalism funding and Maitlis's regret over a previous interview with Bill Clinton, but it doesn't exactly probe deep into these issues,' the critic added.

 

Patrick compared the movie to All the President's Men, which he called the 'gold standard for this kind of quick turnaround journalism film'.

 

'Almost half a century on from its release, that film still feels urgent, driven by an investigative spirit and sense of paranoia that is sorely lacking from Scoop,' he explained.

 

'Instead, all the developments here feel inevitable, meaning there is no sense of tension behind the drama - which consequently ensures the film resembles little more than a functional recap.'

 

THE TELEGRAPH

Rating:

Writing in The Telegraph, film critic Tim Robey gave the Netflix drama a generous five stars out of five, focusing on its all-star cast.

 

'For all the sensation their interview would cause, this re-enactment grips consistently as a revolving study in personalities – and not just theirs [Prince Andrew and Emily Maitlis],' he penned.

 

'A watchful, wary Romola Garai is not messing around as the programme's editor, Esme Wren.

 

'Our real hero, though, is Piper's McAlister – a single mum with a reputation for rocking up late, taking long lunches, and not having much to show for them.'

 

Tim also applauded Peter Moffat's 'wickedly astute' script, writing that the interview recreation was made with 'forensic rigour'.

 

THE GUARDIAN

Rating:

The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw gave Scoop two stars out of five, describing it as 'laboriously acted and distinctly self-admiring, self-mythologising drama about the media, the royals and the media royals'.

 

The critic said there was one 'spark' in the moment Andrew is shown humiliating a female staff member for mishandling his collection of soft toys.

 

'It's a flash of black-comic horror and Sewell has something to get his teeth into as an actor,' he said.

 

'Otherwise, the drama is smothered by its own overwhelming sense of importance.'

 

THE TIMES

Rating:

Hugo Rifkind, for The Times, awarded Scoop a tepid three stars out five - writing that the movie struggles to find a good anchoring story to hold onto.

 

'The dogged art of the behind-the-scenes interview-booker is indeed neglected and under-rated, even in journalism,' he wrote.

 

'I'm not sure, though, that it makes great drama.'

 

He said that while it was interesting to watch a 'broad cosplay of British media, for all its flaws', it didn't feel like the moment was big enough to 'even warrant a drama in the first place'.

 

EVENING STANDARD

Rating:

Writing for the Evening Standard, Melanie McDonagh - who gave Scoop four out of five stars - felt like the only way to watch the nail-biting dramatisation is 'from behind your fingers'.

 

However, while she was full of praise for the acting performances which resulted in 'beautifully tense' storytelling - particularly Gillian, who played Maitlis with 'eerie exactitude', the movie felt like a 'puff for the BBC'.

 

'We're presented with the Corporation in crisis (again) and having to make job cuts – and people's eyes are resting on Sam McAlister (Piper), who doesn't seem at all interested in Brexit and points out home truths about on-message Maitlis,' she said.

 

'At the end, after Maitlis has duly eviscerated the Prince, the Beeb’s Esme Wren (Romola Garai) declares to acclaim that this is what the Corporation is for… holding the powerful to account. Cheers for fearless news reporting!'

 

BBC

Rating:

BBC critic Nicholas Barber praised the acting, but said the film lacked 'a bit of boldness, irreverence, imagination and depth'.

 

'It's a brisk, well-acted and solidly built newsroom drama, but there is plenty of scope for the Amazon series (A Very Royal Scandal) to be better', he said.

 

He awarded the film three stars out of five.

 

THE INDEPENDENT

Rating:

Among those hailing Billie's performance as Sam McAlister was The Independent's Clarisse Loughrey who said the actress offered an 'excellent performance' and rated the movie at three stars.

 

However, she felt the story lacked a necessary depth and criticism of the events.

 

Clarisse wrote that Scoop appeared 'uncomfortably smug about a hollow victory'.

 

'Virginia Giuffre, the woman who would sue Andrew for sexual assault (the case was eventually settled out of court), is merely a name mentioned in passing conversation,' she added.

 

THE DAILY MAIL

Rating:

The Daily Mail's Brian Viner gave the film four stars out of five, hailing the 'top-quality cast and a mischievous script'.

 

'Scoop boasts a top-quality cast,' he wrote. 'A jowly Rufus Sewell plays Andrew and, if you squint quite a lot, you can just about believe it's him. Maitlis is portrayed by Gillian Anderson as stick-thin, brittle and imperious, which seems about right, marching through the BBC's offices with her pet whippet, intimidating everyone.

 

'Keeley Hawes is Andrew's mumsy private secretary, Amanda Thirsk. Romola Garai plays the fierce Newsnight editor Esme Wren. And brassy Sam McAlister, the programme's interview booker whose tenacity landed the prize catch, is played, splendidly, by Billie Piper.'

 

He added: 'Like Netflix's The Crown, director Philip Martin's film deftly mixes historical truths with dramatic licence. But fiction can't compete with fact.

 

'Scoop is never more electrifying than when it finally arrives at the only part of the story we already know intimately, the interview itself, with all its extraordinary minutiae about Pizza Express in Woking and Andrew's supposed inability to sweat. It is very carefully and convincingly recreated.'

Ripley | Official Trailer | Netflix / The Various Mr. Ripleys

The Various Mr. Ripleys

 

“Ripley” on Netflix is the latest riff on the con-artist character the author Patricia Highsmith invented in the 1950s. Here’s a look at the earlier versions.

 

By Brian Tallerico

April 3, 2024, 12:12 p.m. ET

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/03/arts/television/ripley-netflix-andrew-scott.html?searchResultPosition=1

 

One of fiction’s most famous impostors returns on Thursday with the debut of Netflix’s “Ripley,” the latest adaptation of a character invented in the 1950s by the author Patricia Highsmith. In eight episodes, all written and directed by the Oscar-winning screenwriter Steven Zaillian (“Schindler’s List,” “The Night Of”), a classic chameleon changes colors yet again, returning to a few core elements of Highsmith’s original creation while also boosting the creepiness quotient.

 

Over nearly seven decades, Tom Ripley has appeared in five books by Highsmith, five films, multiple television episodes and even a radio show. He has been played by interpreters as varied as Matt Damon, Alain Delon, Dennis Hopper, John Malkovich and now, Andrew Scott. What has made him so enduring?

 

The details change, but the foundation of the character remains the same: a con artist who becomes a killer, someone so enamored by upper-class comfort that, once he experiences it, will do anything to hang on to it. Ripley dreams of a better life for himself, which makes him relatable. What makes him fascinating is his willingness to go to murderous lengths to secure it.

 

As a new version of Tom Ripley arrives, here is a look at how this grifter has evolved over the generations.

 

The Books

By the time Highsmith created Ripley, she was already an accomplished writer. She burst onto the scene in 1950 with her first novel, “Strangers on a Train,” which would be adapted into the Alfred Hitchcock film a year later. Other acclaimed Highsmith works include “The Two Faces of January,” made into a 2014 film starring Viggo Mortensen; and “Deep Water,” adapted into a 2022 film starring Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas. Using the pen name Claire Morgan, Highsmith also wrote “The Price of Salt,” renamed “Carol” for Todd Haynes’s 2015 film adaptation.

 

The books collectively known as the “Ripliad” remain her signature achievement. The series started in 1955 with “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” a thriller that has been adapted multiple times and influenced other, similar tales of men replacing other men. Highsmith’s Ripley is a low-level con man asked by a shipping magnate to find his layabout son, Dickie Greenleaf, who is wasting his trust fund in Italy with his friend Marge Sherwood.

 

Tom quickly becomes enraptured with Dickie’s life, as the skeptical Marge and abrasive friend Freddie Miles view him with suspicion. When it appears that Dickie wants to cut Tom loose, Ripley murders him on the water with an oar and attempts to take his place. Highsmith’s Ripley is always one step ahead of reality, willing to do anything to stay there. He is more amoral than immoral, unwilling or unable to consider anything beyond his own self-interest.

 

The character would appear in four sequels: “Ripley Under Ground” (1970); “Ripley’s Game” (1974); “The Boy Who Followed Ripley” (1980); and “Ripley Under Water” (1991). But the first story has remained the one most identified with Ripley, even as different artists have made him their own.

 

‘Purple Noon’

The first adaptation of “The Talented Mr. Ripley” was on TV, in a 1956 episode of the anthology series “Studio One.” (One of the writers was Marc Brandel, who had once been engaged to Highsmith.) The French film “Purple Noon” (1960) presented the first cinematic version of Ripley, introducing the world to Alain Delon, in his first major role.

 

Co-written and directed by René Clément, it begins in Italy, eschewing the criminal setup of Highsmith’s novel. It presents the most impassioned Ripley — he is motivated more by vengeance than by a desire for wealth. This Greenleaf, named Philippe (played by Maurice Ronet), is a cruel, abusive snob. When he catches Ripley in his clothes — a key turning point in all versions of the tale — Philippe acts out against him, belittling Tom and stranding him on a dinghy in the hot sun to teach him a lesson. Tom decides to kill Philippe and take his place.

 

From there the film hews close to the source material. However, Clément sends his Ripley into a trap at the end, perhaps recognizing that movie audiences in 1960 wanted to see their villains punished, even if they were as charismatic as Delon.

 

‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’

Matt Damon, right, played the title role in “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” written and directed by Anthony Minghella. (With Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law.)Credit...Phil Bray/Paramount Pictures & Miramax Films

This 1999 film by Anthony Minghella kept Highsmith’s vicious opportunism while changing a few key elements, upping the body count and aggravating some purists.

 

Matt Damon’s take on Ripley is less of a schemer — his cruelty tends to be improvised, the result of emotional torment rather than sociopathic planning. This Ripley isn’t a criminal at the start, merely someone who stumbles into the elder Greenleaf’s life and gets sent to Italy by chance. He is also clearly attracted to Dickie, which is hinted at in other versions but made explicit here. (For the record, Highsmith told Sight & Sound in 1988 that she didn’t think Ripley was gay, even if her original text allowed for that interpretation.)

 

Featuring one of the best casts of its era, with Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Cate Blanchett, among others, Minghella’s version uses a well-known source to craft its own story, ending with a scene that is somehow both heartbreaking and disturbing in equal measure.

 

Other Ripley books were adapted to varying degrees of success over the years. The best of the bunch is Wim Wenders’s “The American Friend” (1977), which blends elements of “Ripley’s Game” and “Ripley Under Ground” into something new and very Wenders. Bruno Ganz is excellent as a dying painter manipulated by Ripley, played here by Dennis Hopper, who has an eccentric, enigmatic take on the character.

 

John Malkovich starred in a 2002 film version of “Ripley’s Game,” and Barry Pepper played the character in a little-seen adaptation of “Ripley Under Ground” in 2005. Jonathan Kent played Ripley in “Patricia Highsmith: A Gift for Murder,” a 1982 episode of the British arts and culture series “The South Bank Show.” BBC Radio 4 adapted all five Ripley novels in 2009, with Ian Hart as Ripley.

 

‘Ripley’

Originally commissioned by Showtime, the new “Ripley” moved to Netflix last year while the show was still in postproduction. With Scott (“All of Us Strangers”) in the title role, it follows the narrative of the Highsmith original while adding its own distinctive touches: Black-and-white cinematography by Robert Elswit (“There Will Be Blood”) amplifies the cool detachment of the con artist, portrayed by Scott as a criminal with ice in his veins. Johnny Flynn plays Dickie, and Dakota Fanning is Marge.

 

But as usual the main focus is Tom Ripley, who keeps slinking his way through books, films and TV, unconcerned about the damage he leaves in his wake.

Alnmouth Village Golf Club / ‘Awful’: climate crisis threatens to sink historic north-east golf club

‘Awful’: climate crisis threatens to sink historic north-east golf club

 

Saving Alnmouth from rising seas and coastal erosion complicated by links course being on private land

 

Morgan Ofori

Tue 2 Apr 2024 05.00 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/02/climate-crisis-threatens-alnmouth-golf-club-coast-erosion

 

For most golfers, the most damage a furious wind can do is to your handicap – and, if you are really unfortunate, your car windshield.

 

But visitors to Alnmouth village golf club in Northumberland have to contend with the prospect of storms and rising sea levels consigning the oldest nine-hole links course in the country to history.

 

There are fears that the historic golfing attraction will disappear as a result of coastal erosion, the undefended area closest to the sea near the fifth hole is especially at risk.

 

“I don’t think in another 100 years we will be playing golf here, I think it’s changed that much in the last 30 years,” said the club secretary Ian Simpson, who has been a member for more than a decade.

 

Simpson’s daughter, Emelia, who is club manager, added: “No one wants to play on an eight-hole golf course.”

 

Built in 1869 by the Scottish golfer Mungo Park, it is classed as being in an area of natural outstanding beauty (AONB) and it counts the Northern Irish professional Ronan Rafferty and the former Dutch football international Ruud Gullit among its past members. The club said at least 25 to 30 yards of the course closest to the sea had eroded, with bath houses that lined up along the boundaries being washed away and about 10ft of sand having been lost by the second and third tee.

 

Valerie Barkley, a member of four years, said golf was the only sport she liked and being part of a strong female representation at the club – which has about 10,000 visitors a year.

 

She said: “The ladies section meet on Wednesday and play competitions. I’m on the committee, we’ve brought friends that have gone on to join. If it was to go it would be awful, I’m rather selfishly hoping not in my lifetime.”

 

Ian Simpson has suggested rock armour, which is used in harbours to defend coastlines, may solve the issue but matters had been complicated by the fact that the club is on private land owned by the Duke of Northumberland and maintained by patrons, the burgage holders of Alnmouth Common. The club cannot drastically alter the makeup of the coastline without permission.

 

The climate campaign group One Home sees the golf club, and neighbouring village, as symbols for wider trends of losing sporting, recreation, heritage and religious sites along the whole of English coast.

 

Angela Terry, the chief executive of One Home, said: “On top of these losses, infrastructure including roads and landfill sites, businesses and homes are falling into the sea at an accelerating rate.

 

“The government’s response is to pass responsibility between overstretched and often bankrupt local authorities and the Environment Agency teams who are working desperately hard to hold back the sea but it’s a losing battle due to sea level rise and stronger storms.”

 

Terry added that it was unlikely that any national coast erosion risk maps were updated with climate projections or land losses seen on the ground.

 

The local county council says protecting private land from coastal erosion is the responsibility of the landowner. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer

 

The Environment Agency points to funding awarded in February to Northumberland county council to enforce flood management and coastal erosion control and use as it sees fit.

 

A spokesperson for the council said protecting private land from coastal erosion was the responsibility of the landowner but contact had been made with Alnmouth golf club to offer advice on short-term solutions while longer term implications were being considered.

 

They added: “The majority of funding for coastal defence works comes from the Environment Agency and usually, to attract sufficient funding for a scheme to be viable, residential properties must be protected.”

 

Martin Swinbank, Green councillor for the local Alnwick ward, said a 100-year shoreline management plan, which runs from the Scottish border to the River Tyne, was launched in 2009. It aimed to intervene in the area where the club was based but the climate crisis accelerated by “human activity” – burning fossil fuels – had reinforced coastal erosion.

 

Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the Conservative MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed, said she had written to the culture and environment secretaries to seek their support to protect the club from the risk of coastal erosion.

 

She added: “While our unique Northumberland landscape is breathtakingly beautiful, it presents us with challenges too, which I will continue to take up with the government and other responsible bodies on behalf of my constituents.”

 

Established 1869, Alnmouth is the fourth oldest golf club in England.

https://www.alnmouthgolfclub.com/the-golf-club/club-history/

 

This is where it all began.

In August, 1869 Captain Arthur Walker, on behalf of a number of others, issued a notice to probable members about the forming of a golf club in Alnmouth. It is believed that the course in Alnmouth village was designed and created by Mungo Park, a youngish man at the time, who was to become a famous golf professional and the Club’s first professional.

 

The first Annual Meeting of the Club is recorded as taking place in October of the same year, according to the notice, a copy of which is held at the Club.

 

The first competition for the Percy Medal was played in the Autumn of 1869 on the 19th of October, resulting in a win for Captain Walker, the secretary, with a score of 81. The notice for the Autumn meeting also mentions a silver Challenge Cross, presented by a member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, a Mr. Charles Walker.

 

The first winner of this medal was the Revd. A. Medd with a score of 119 strokes for 18 holes. There is no record, however, to say when this medal round was played. It may have been a second day’s competition at the October meeting or played for later in the year.

 

Further challenge prizes were given shortly after this. In 1870 Mr. A.H. Browne presented the Browne Cup to be followed by the Cadogan Medal from Mr. C.W. Cadogan. These were to be played for at the Spring meeting in 1870, starting with the Browne Cup which Mr. C.E. Riddell won with a score of 92. This particular meeting was celebrated in the evening with a fireworks display at which all the villagers were present. The following Spring the Cadogan Medal was played for as the first prize when Mr. Alexander Strath won it with a score of 79, and the Browne Cup became the second prize. The disparity between all these winning scratch scores must be of some academic interest! From what appears later in the records, it is presumed that members arranged matches between themselves on whatever terms they chose. Twice a year however, there were special gatherings for competitions – the Spring and Autumn meetings. While on the subject of the earlier trophies, the Wilson Snuff Box appeared in 1893 with the Tate Prize in 1906. From that date until the early thirties no other prizes were given for annual competition. All of these are still played for today.

 

In September 1881 a professional tournament was organised by the Club together with Mungo Park the professional/ greenkeeper. The Club provided prize money of £27, with £12 for the winner, £7, £5, £2, and £1 for the runners up. M. Ferguson won the event with a score of 160 for four rounds of nine holes. The Park family name dominated the players list:

 

M. Park (Alnmouth) – fourth with 172

W. Park Jr. (Ryton) – equal with 172

F. Park (Musselburgh) – 187

 

Later, in 1887 there is reference to another professional tournament and doubtless there were many others. An annual publication, “The Golfing Annual and Club Directory” for 1887/88 published subscriptions of ten shillings and sixpence with a membership total of 160.

 

So, Alnmouth had now taken its place among the earliest courses and Clubs in England, sharing fourth place in this respect with Hoylake (Royal Liverpool), their predecessors being Blackheath -1608; Westward Ho (Royal North Devon) in 1864; and Royal Wimbledon in 1865. Moreover, Alnmouth played its part as one of the sponsors of the Amateur Championship. It was in 1885 that the Royal Liverpool Club (Hoylake) actually introduced the competition and Alnmouth with 23 other clubs controlled this event until the year 1919.

 

Ladies played golf at Alnmouth long before they formed their own club, as early as 1881, the Newcastle Daily Journal printed a note saying that the Alnmouth Ladies had made a request to the men’s club to play a horse shoe round on the links. The Alnmouth Ladies Golf Club was formed in 1907, they held their first committee meeting in July 1908 and the first Lady Captain was Mrs MacLean who was in office from 1908 to 1911.

 

In the late 1920’s the Duke of Northumberland was approached and consented to lease a further piece of land in order to make a new 18 hole course. A survey of the land was made by Mr HS Colt the famous golf architect and his report was published in the Newcastle Journal on the 4th July 1929. The land surrounded Foxton Hall, one of the historic residences of the Percy family, which was to be used as the clubhouse. The plans included using a portion of the building as a ‘Dormy House’ which is still in existence today.The adoption of the Foxton Hall scheme was reported on the 10th December 1929 with the new club to come into being on the 1st January 1930. The first membership subscription was 5 guineas, 4 guineas for ladies. In the early days the original 9 holes remained part of Alnmouth Golf Club and thus the club had two courses. The new course was opened on the 9 May 1931, but sadly the the 8th Duke of Northumberland died suddenly in August and was therefore not present to witness his vision. In 1936 Alnmouth Village Golf Club was formed and took over the running of the old links. Since that time the club’s have maintained their historical links and still play a number of special combined competitions, the most famous called ‘the upper and downer’ a match between the two clubs played on a combination course of the back nine holes at Foxton (the upper) and the nine holes of the old links (the downer).

 

From the book on the history of Alnmouth Golf Club called Golf at Alnmouth written by D.P. Walton published in 1992 and recently updated in 2004 by former Secretary Peter McIlroy.

Great Houses, Modern Aristocrats

This stunning book presents the intriguing stories and celebrated histories of some of the leading families of Great Britain and Ireland and the opulent residences that have defined their heritages. The history of England is inextricably linked with the stories of its leading aristocratic dynasties and the great seats they have occupied for centuries. As the current owners speak of the critical roles their ancestors have played in the nation, they bring history alive. All of these houses have survived great wars, economic upheavals, and, at times, scandal. Filled with stunning photography, this book is a remarkably intimate and lively look inside some of Britain’s stateliest houses, with the modern-day aristocrats who live in them and keep them going in high style. This book presents a tour of some of England’s finest residences, with many of the interiors shown here for the first time. It includes Blenheim Palace—seven acres under one roof, eclipsing the splendor of any of the British royal family’s residences—property of the Dukes of Marlborough; the exquisite Old Vicarage in Derbyshire, last residence of the late Dowager Duchess of Devonshire (née Deborah Mitford); Haddon Hall, a vast crenellated 900-year-old manor house belonging to the Dukes of Rutland that has been called the most romantic house in England; and the island paradises on Mustique and St. Lucia of the 3rd Baron Glenconner. This book is perfect for history buffs and lovers of traditional interior design and English country life.

About the Author

James Reginato is writer-at-large for Vanity Fair and a contributing editor of Sotheby’s Magazine.

Jonathan Becker is a photographer who has contributed to Vogue, The New Yorker, and Vanity Fair.

Viscount Linley is Hon. Chairman for Christie’s in Europe, the Middle East, Russia, and India.

http://www.rizzoliusa.com/book.php?isbn=9780847848980

James Reginato is writer-at-large for Vanity Fair and a contributing editor of Sotheby’s Magazine.

 

The history of England and the British people is inextricably linked with the stories of its leading aristocratic dynasties and the seats they have occupied for centuries. These houses have survived great wars, economic upheavals, and at times scandal and tragedy. James Reginato, writer-at-large for Vanity Fair, will showcase several of these homes in England, Ireland, Italy, and the Carribean, and for the first times illustrate some of their private interiors—among them the exquisite Old Vicarage in Derbyshire, the last residence of the late Dowager Duchess of Devonshire; Villa Cetinale in Tuscany, owned by the 7th Earl of Durham; Blenheim Palace, the home of the 11th Duke of Marlborough; Broughton Castle, home of the 21st Baron Saye and Sele; and The Grove in Oxfordshire, home of Countess Mountbatten of Burma and Lady Pamela Hicks.

http://www.classicist.org/programs/lectures-tours-events/detail/modern-aristocrats-ancestral-houses-and-their-stories-with-james-reginato-writer-at-large-vanity-fair/

  Great Houses, Modern Aristocrats

Written by James Reginato, Foreword by Viscount Linley, Photographed by Jonathan Becker

Pub Date: October 4, 2016

Format: Hardcover

Category: House & Home - Decorating

Publisher: Rizzoli

Trim Size: 9-3/8 x 12-3/4

US Price: $60.00

CAN Price: $80.00

ISBN: 978-0-8478-4898-0