Alexander Larman

News! Delighted to be joining @TheCriticMag from their May issue to cover theatre, and I look forward to reviewing as many plays as I can cover over the coming months.

I reviewed the deeply thought-provoking Inter Alia, with an awards-worthy central performance from Rosamund Pike, for @TheCriticMag. thecritic.co.uk/a-grown-up-ado…

"The songs that he wrote remain extraordinary, giddy delights, combining tuneful arrangements with 'did-he-really-say-that?' lyrics." From @alexlarman trib.al/2egQnAn

Tom Lehrer should be remembered by his own words, namely “If, after hearing my songs, just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend, or perhaps to strike a loved one, it will all have been worth the while.”

Oh no, Tom Lehrer - the GREAT Tom Lehrer - gone. 97 is a fine age but even so, I thought he would last forever.

To misquote School of Rock, ‘I’ve been touched by the contestants, and I’m pretty sure they’ve been touched by me, too’

Amidst continued speculation as to who will be the next James Bond, I wrote about perhaps the best actor never to have become 007, Jeremy Northam, and why he seems to have faded from view. alexanderlarman.substack.com/p/jeremy-north…

‘One that is shrouded in mystery is precisely what Anderson and the Wikileaks fugitive Julian Assange got up to together when he was in self-imposed exile in the broom cupboard of the Ecuadorian embassy in London.’

Inter Alia bloody *lands*. Powerhouse stuff, and Rosamund Pike ought to start practicing the many, many awards speeches she’ll be delivering over the next year.

realclearbooks.com Wednesday reads: @valerie_reads for @compactmag_, @alexlarman for his S*bstack, @TheIvyExile for his S*bstack, @xsantiagoramos for @WCrowdsLive, @river_is_nice for @TheFP, and many others.

A very quick tribute to the late, great Ozzy Osbourne

I've written about Master and Commander, a superb film and a fitting testament to the talent of its perennially (and strangely) underrated director, the great Peter Weir. alexanderlarman.substack.com/p/master-and-c…

My latest piece, about the brilliance of the reissued Barry Lyndon. alexanderlarman.substack.com/p/the-luck-of-…

I wrote for @spectator about the most useless superhero of all time (save Howard the Duck), the ineffectual and vaguely BNP-leaning Captain Britain. spectator.co.uk/article/captai…

"Unexpectedly, the Oxford literature professor Clive Staples Lewis – better known as C.S. Lewis – is having something of a moment, more than six decades after his death." From @alexlarman trib.al/AB20iHS

What a phenomenal waste of talent

I saw the latest incarnation of the long-running, much beloved Operation Mincemeat last week. As I write for @TheCriticMag today, I am, unfortunately, something of an agnostic when it comes to its WWII japery. thecritic.co.uk/big-dumb-and-f…

I've also written about 13 things that shouldn't have worked in cinema (and did), and 13 things that had no hope of succeeding (and didn't). alexanderlarman.substack.com/p/13-things-th… And if any of this appeals further, do subscribe.

I didn't wake up today with any plans to launch a subscription-based newsletter, but it's 150 years since Harold Davidson was born, and so it just seemed the right sort of time. Here's the first one, subscribe if you'd like to read more.

Struck by Michael Buerk’s comments this morning on Radio 4 that the world has become ‘more selfish, more cynical and more stupid’ in the last 40 years. I don’t think he is wrong.

One of the many, *many* things I've enjoyed about the Salt Path revelations is that I can't remember the last time that a piece of literary malfeasance made the front pages. Perhaps the Hitler Diaries? Certainly not James Frey.