Matthew Steeples invites you to an evening with ‘Waking The Dead’ writer and co-founder of ‘Byline Times’ Peter Jukes on 20th May 2026 at PJ’s Chelsea Brasserie, London
Matthew Steeples of The Steeple Times
invites you to
An evening with author, screenwriter, playwright and journalist Peter Jukes
Writer: ‘Holby City’, ‘The Inspector Lynley Mysteries’ and ‘Waking The Dead’
Author: ‘A Shout in the Street’ and ‘The Fall of the House of Murdoch’
Podcaster: ‘Untold: The Daniel Morgan Murder Exposed’
Co-founder: ‘Byline Times’
The Steeple Times – Discussion and Dinner
at PJ’s Chelsea Brasserie, 52 Fulham Road, London, SW3 6HH
on Wednesday 20th May 2026
THE EVENING
* Arrivals for a Prosecco reception in a private setting on the first floor of PJ’s Chelsea Brasserie from 6.30pm. Those arriving earlier are welcome to enjoy a drink at the ground floor PJ’s bar.
* Matthew Steeples in conversation with Peter Jukes at 7pm prompt with audience questions to follow for 30 minutes. The format will be similar to our previous discussions with amongst others biographer and true crime legend Geoffrey Wansell, Britain’s best known crime correspondent Martin Brunt of Sky News, actor, writer and producer Steven Berkoff, filmmaker Amanda Eliasch, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York author Andrew Lownie and Manhunt and Crime Suspect host Peter Bleksley. There will be an opportunity for questions.
* 3-course dinner with wine, with options for those with particular dietary requirements, to follow. Guests will have the opportunity to chat with Peter Jukes and Matthew Steeples during the dinner.
* After dinner, guests will be welcome to continue discussions downstairs at the legendary PJ’s bar for further cocktails and conversation.
PETER JUKES
Swindon born Peter Jukes graduated from Queens’ College, Cambridge with a double first in English. A self-declared “Jack of all trades,” Peter’s early plays were performed by Tilda Swinton and Johanna Scalon and his contemporaries at the Cambridge Footlights numbered Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry and Emma Thompson.
During a veritable and varied career, here is a personable polymath who has worked as a journalist, playwright, screenwriter, literary critic and author. Aside from being lauded as an expert in the art of dark comedy, on television and radio, Peter is primarily known for his work in the field of crime thrillers and medical dramas. Credits have included The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Waking the Dead and Sea of Souls. His opening episode of the third season of Holby City was described by The Guardian as “the televisual equivalent of crack” whilst his 20-part series about the murder of the British private investigator Daniel Morgan topped the UK iTunes podcast chart.
Delving into the phone hacking scandal took Peter down a rabbit hole that resulted in him becoming the first person to ‘live tweet’ a trial on his iPad (with the permission of the presiding judge, Mr Justice Saunders). After spending nearly 9 months doing this in 2013 and 2014 and having written a book about the paradoxes of the News Corp head honcho, Rupert Murdoch, titled The Fall of the House of Murdoch, in 2012, he co-founded the crusading investigative title Byline Times in 2012.
The work of Peter Jukes and his colleagues on topics ranging from Brexit and Cambridge Analytic to Jeffrey Epstein’s expressed desire to establish a church for “confession privilege” have resulted in Byline Times being described as a “counter-balance to the billionaire dominated British press.”
BOOKING
Tickets are priced at £85 per person and include a glass of Prosecco on arrival and half a bottle of either red or white wine per person with dinner.
To pay by bank transfer, please use the details below or alternatively please make a transfer of £85 per ticket to the account listed below by clicking the following link:
Tickets can only be purchased in advance and guest names must be supplied for allocated place settings. The deadline for booking is 6pm on Tuesday 19th May 2026. Tickets are issued on a non-refundable basis.
MENU
The ticket price includes a glass of Prosecco on arrival, ½ a bottle of either red or white wine per person and a three course meal.
David Lennox shares the stories of five famous British poker players and what makes them good at their game
Many of our readers enjoy gaming both in casinos and online on sites such as SlotsLV, but most would struggle to name individuals famous for other activities who also happen to be very, very good at games such as poker.
Whilst well-known individuals such as the footballer Michael Owen has also found success on the horseracing circuit and the England manager Terry Venables is now also known for co-creating the detective series Hazell, the following five ‘famous faces’ are the British kings of ‘poker hand’ activity:
Derren Brown
Mentalist, illusionist, painter and author are just a few of the occupations Derren Brown has practicised. A former evangelical Christian turned atheist, this award-winning “master of mind control” is a winner of two Laurence Olivier Awards and in 2014 appeared as himself in the Sherlock episode ‘The Empty Hearse.’
Active since 1992, Croydon born Brown claims not possess any supernatural powers and often begins his shows by stating that what he does is achieved through “magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship.” He took inspiration from the hypnotist Martin S. Taylor and worked as a conjuror whilst studying at the University of Bristol.
Considered a controversial entertainer by some, Brown – who claims to be a “big fan” of parrots and who is a patron of the Parrot Zoo Trust in Friskney, Lincolnshire – is said to have “prowess” also at blackjack and poker. He is considered so good that he has supposedly been banned from several casinos in the United Kingdom.
Stephen Chidwick (Aliases ‘stevie444’ and ‘TylersDad64’)
Aside from being a lookalike of the Marmite-like social media manipulator Andrew Tate, Playa del Carmen based Stephen Chidwick is listed as being the number one on the England all-time money list for poker tournament winnings.
Born in 1989 in Deal, Kent and “popular with the fans,” Chidwick had raked in a grand total of £26.1 million ($32.3 million, €29.7 million or درهم118.6 million) by November 2019 and likely now has well exceeded that figure. At that time, he was eighth all-time and he currently stands at the biggest-earning British tournament poker player in history.
Michael Greco
Best known for having played Beppe di Marco in EastEnders for four years, Michael Greco was born in Sutton, Greater London in November 1970. He has also appeared in Casualty, Celebrity Love Island and Soapstar Superstar, but card games are his true passion.
Wikipedia list Greco’s total live tournament poker winnings at in excess of £890,000 ($1.1 million, €1 million or درهم4 million), but given they only provide dated entries to contests including the Showbiz Poker between 2005 and 2009, his actual total is likely far higher.
In 2022, the actor announced he would be starring in a new Netflix series and also appeared in Aladdin at Wolverhampton’s Grand Theatre. Of this, he observed: “They’re the best parts to play, the villains. It’s the role people remember. I played the boy-next-door characters growing up. As I’ve got a bit older, gruffer and hairier – oh, and greyer – it’s the baddies now.”
Stephen Hendry MBE (AKA ‘The Golden Boy’, ‘The Ice Man’ and ‘The King of the Crucible’)
Aside from having appeared a poor ninth in The Masked Singer as ‘Rubbish’ in 2023, this Scottish snooker player is lauded as “one of the most successful snooker players in history.”
Hendry turned professional in 1985 at the tender age of 16 and went on to become the sport’s youngest world champion when he won his first World Snooker Championship in 1990 aged just 21. He won seven world titles between 1990 and 1999 and retired in 2012, but returned to the professional circuit in 2021.
A father of two, Hendry supports Hearts and Chelsea F.C. and also “enjoys poker.” He has appeared in several televised tournaments and especially “loves” high-stakes games.
Stuart Wheeler (1935 – 2020)
Eton and Oxford educated Stuart Wheeler was once “told to stop playing blackjack for being too successful at Caesar’s Palace Casino in Las Vegas.” He played cards with Lord Lucan two nights before his disappearance, invented spread-betting on shares and gave William Hague’s Conservative Party the biggest donation in British history – a sum of £5 million ($6.2 million, €5.7million or درهم22.7 million).
A regular competitor in the World Series of Poker championships and known for playing bridge with Omar Sharif also, Wheeler lived in the £15 million ($18.6 million, €17 million or درهم68.2 million) Chilham Castle in Kent and counted ‘Model of the Millennium’ Jacquetta Wheeler amongst his trio of delightful daughters.
In September 2019, Quiller published Wheeler’s memoir Winning Against The Odds: My Life in Gambling and Politics and launched it with a glitzy party hosted by Dominic Cummings at Carlton House Terrace. He sadly died of stomach cancer just months later and generously left his Jacobean castle to charity.
David Lennox is a restaurant critic and occasional enthusiast for the ‘Sports of Kings.’ He enjoys the ‘Beautiful Game’ and the odd game of poker as well as backgammon and the roulette wheel also.
As ‘MeGain’s’ bestie Omid Scobie claims Sadie Quinlan (AKA ‘Yankee Wally’) is “on a watch list” with the “good folk at South Wales Police and Scotland Yard” and the “Fixated Threat Assessment Centre” also, the popular YouTuber reports him to the police herself
Whilst the Duchess of Sussex was quite rightly forced to apologise to the Appeal Court in London for making a misleading statement – which the BBC described as her (rather conveniently) having “forgotten events” – in December, it seems her number one PR peddler, the wretch that is Omid Scobie has turned his attention to the popular ‘Yankee Wally’ YouTuber Sadie Quinlan and isn’t allowing her to forget her own past.
Yesterday, in an 11:09-minute YouTube upload that has been watched over 17,700 times and ‘liked’ by 3,500 already, Quinlan shared a tweet from Scobie that described her as a “racist” and “deranged criminal.” He went further and claimed: “Don’t even waste a second on what that deranged, racist criminal thinks. Leave it to the good folk at South Wales Police and Scotland Yard, whose Fixated Threat Assessment Centre have [Sadie Quinlan] on a watch list.”
Understandably upset by the harsh words of this so-called “royal editor” for Harpers Bazaar and self-proclaimed New York Times “bestselling author,” Quinlan – who made clear she had no prior knowledge of how Scobie could know of such a listing – decided to respond by herself calling the Metropolitan Police.
She remarked: “The last thing you need Omid Scobie is somebody calling you ‘deranged’” and added: “I am not a criminal. I shall take this absolutely all the way I can. When that lovely police officer rings me back next week from the Fixated Threat department, I am going to take it to the highest level.”
Of two others she believes have connections to such matters, Quinlan added: “Let’s have the bloody lot. I’m watching you and I’m going to make charges against you if I can… I’m coming for you… I am absolutely tamping [Welsh adjective meaning ‘extremely angry’] mad.”
The lesson to mouse-not-a-man Omid Scobie and his associates here should be laid clear: If you give it out, expect it back – especially when you take on the force to be reckoned with that is ‘Yankee Wally.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvOmZpLg0wY
The tweet by Omid Scobie, posted on Twitter on 19th February 2022 at 7:11pm, in which he described Sadie Quinlan as a “deranged, racist criminal.”In August 2020, the ‘Daily Mail’ shared that plastic-not-fantastic Omid previously worked at gossip magazine ‘Heat’ and partied with the ‘glamour model’ Jodie Marsh. They mentioned how somebody had “airbrushed” Meghan Markle’s “entry on the online encyclopedia Wikipedia… to include more flattering details days before her romance with Prince Harry became public” and illustrated the ‘Finding Freedom’ author’s “drastic transformation” in two very different photographs. Mr Scobie is someone who most definitely would like his past forgotten, but curiously he doesn’t want to allow Sadie Quinlan to have hers forgotten.Illustrating himself to be anything but a real journalist, “influencer” Scobie told the ‘Women in Leadership Publication’: “A casual follower be forgiven for thinking that royal news is just fizzy commentary on the pomp and soap opera of The Firm” in their spring 2021 edition. He self-importantly added: “Reaching millions on Twitter has also enabled my own views and advocacy to travel further” and concluded: “I want to do everything I can to ensure that individuals from every background can get a seat at the table.” Here is someone far from a journalist; here, in fact, is someone who should just be called out as the Duchess of Sussex’s PR peddler.An analysis of Omid Scobie’s Twitter feed clearly shows that a large proportion of his followers are a bit like himself: FAKE.The Duchess of Sussex – pictured giving the clearly far more dignified by far Duchess of Cambridge a right old glare – likes to stir the pot. One of her chief pot stirrers is most definitely Omid Scobie – a poison pen pest described by Nikolay Kalinin in ‘The Steeple Times’ in July 2021 as “a washed-up, childish clot” and someone with “no legitimacy in the media industry.”
When he’s not bragging about wearing Balenciaga, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior or sharing photos of his dog, Yoshi, on his Instagram account, the ‘Finding Freedom’ author constantly bangs on about how he believes the royal family to have racist elements. His speculation is rarely supported by anything other than unnamed sources that give his suggestions little to no credibility.
Sadie Quinlan (AKA ‘Yankee Wally’ responds to Omid Scobie calling her a “deranged, racist criminal”
“All my content is found on the public domain with just my own views and opinions and I do follow the fair use and the fair dealing guidelines”
“I think this tripped me over the edge… They can get their just deserts. Scobie wrote this in reply to whatever her name is, Amanda @MattaOfFact.”
“I like it Amanda I thought you did a fabulous spiff of me and if gets you a bit of extra money after your ten grand from your gopher Lee and whatever money you manage to scrape from your Patreon. You’ve got every begging bowl on the Internet opening and waiting for the money, haven’t you? So, make a bit of money off me, my pleasure, fill your boots.”
“But anyway, Scobie replied to this and this is what he said: ‘Oh dear. Don’t even waste a second on what that deranged, racist criminal thinks. Leave it to the good folk at South Wales Police and Scotland Yard, whose Fixated Threat Assessment Centre have her on a watch list.’”
“Right, OK, so I thought to myself it’s got to be done. Now, you know what I say and I’ll say it again and I’m an absolute manic about it. Do not waste police time. Don’t do it. If you’ve got a little problem, your neighbour is giving you gyp, banging on a wall, wait until the next day and ring 101. Don’t dial 999. Don’t ring the police unless it’s urgent.”
“Having said that, who am I to judge what is urgent and what’s not, but you’ll find that yours truly will take an awful lot of s**t before I ring the police. Because, well, well this is the way I was taught.”
“I even apologised to the police officer today saying that somebody could be needing them a lot more than me. He said, erm, in his London accent: ‘Well, don’t worry about it Sadie,” erh.”
“Anyway, let me tell you what happened. So I see this and I’m thinking: ‘One step too far, one step too far.’ So, then I go looking online for whatever the Fixated Person’s thing is and I found all this information.”
“So, I’m thinking, I don’t wanna [sic] ring the police. I do not want to ring the police. So, yes, I can give them that [sharing a screenshot of what information is required], I can give that, I can give that, I’ve got a passport, I’ve got a licence, so I will do that, I do that.”
“Right ‘o. OK and then I got the number for Scotland Yard so I thought maybe I’ll ring them and ask them because I couldn’t find a number for the Fixated Threat people and I didn’t, at the time, see where I could fill in a form.”
“So, I’m on the phone waiting now. This is Scotland Yard. I took a screenshot the minute that they answered at 11:43am. You can see the time at the top there [sharing another screenshot], 16:36 so it is not even an hour ago now and then I found a form that you could fill in on that webpage that I just showed you and so I wrote down everything that I could.”
“Meanwhile, 25 minutes on the phone to Scotland Yard. ‘I’ve been told I’m on your list. It’s all over Twitter and also it has been claimed by Omid Scobie, a journalist, that I am on your ‘watch list.’ I am horrified.” I couldn’t put it all in one, so I scrolled.”
“’Please can you confirm this as a matter of urgency, if this is true? And if it is, why? This has upset me beyond words and I am also extremely cross at the insulting nature of Mr Omid Scobie’s claim. I look forward to your reply ASAP.” Then I said: “Regards.”
“Now, while I was in the middle of filling all this form in, though it didn’t take me long, Scotland Yard answered the phone to me, so then I am on the phone to Scotland Yard and, erm, they answered at around about 4:30pm and I was on the phone to them until about quarter to five.”
“And I spoke to an absolutely, and I’m not just saying this, he was so kind to me because I was almost crying. I was beside myself, I have to be honest because, I mean, erm, I’m not trying to get sympathy here, but I can’t bloody walk. How am I going to stalk anybody? And if I can’t walk, do you know how hard it is for me to post a letter? I’ve got to beg the postman, if I catch him when he delivers a letter. I can’t get out to the postbox, so as far as malicious letters and stuff, everything I do is online.”
“So, they answered the phone and I spoke to him and I explained and he said: ‘Well, you’ve hit lucky today, Sadie.’ I said: “Oh, why’s that?’ He said: ‘Well, because I’m covering here on the main switchboard, but my main job is in the Fixated Threat department.’ Ha ha ha… On my life, on my life, that’s his job. Ha ha ha…”
“So, he asks for my name, my date of birth and all the other things, my address and off he went and he came back and he said, and by now I am crying and I said: ‘Look, I’m worried sick about this.’ I said: ‘I’m not a stalker’ and he said: ‘We’re going to ring you back about this, Sadie,’ he said: ‘And who was the person that made this complaint?’”
“I said: ‘I believe it is Omid Scobie, but it could be somebody else. It’s on Twitter.’ He said: ‘Here’s a reference number.’ Here we are. He gave me his number, the policeman’s number and a reference number and there’s the ‘umpty’ [sic] form and that’s where you can get it if you want to fill it in.”
“So, erm, I’ve haven’t rung South Wales Police yet because I think Scotland Yard is all I need because I’ve looked at this Fixated Threat thing and it’s all based in London Metropolitan Police. So, I thought no, I’m not saying that the Welsh are organ grinders. Not the monkey, the organ grinder. Yeah, Metropolitan Police will be the organ grinder and we are the monkeys, I know that.”
“So, I’m waiting now to hear from them, probably next week and, erm, that’s that. So, I’m not letting this go because, what, what I don’t like, I’ll tell you what I don’t like: I’m not a racist, I can make jokes about people with black skin if I want to. Like, Ricky Gervais. If you don’t like it, don’t bloody listen to me.”
“I am not a criminal anymore. I am an ex-criminal. I’ve paid my price to society twenty bloody years ago.”
“Scobie, you, don’t throw stones unless your own house is clean and what’s the other one, er, ‘deranged.’ Now that, now that hurts because when you’ve been to a psychiatrist for the best part of ten years after you’ve been made homeless and God knows what and you are antidepressants and you’re doing OK thank you very much. And I can hold, I can string a sentence together, I can think coherently and there’s been times, and I don’t mind telling you, I wasn’t able to do that.”
“So, when somebody calls me ‘deranged,’ it kind of, it kind of trips a switch and it’s an angry switch because when you’ve worked hard on your mental health, when you’ve worked bloody hard to get your mental health back to normal, the last thing you need Omid Scobie is somebody calling you ‘deranged.’ That is very, very harmful and to call me a ‘racist’ is wrong. I’ve told you: My son-in-law is the same colour as you.”
“I am not a criminal. I shall take this absolutely all the way I can. When that lovely police officer rings me back next week from the Fixated Threat department, I am going to take it to the highest level.”
“And there’s two other people I’m after too. I’ll tell you who they are now. You [sharing a screenshot of the Twitter handle of Unstoppable-Chi, @dumielauxepices], Lorenzo, I know, you. I know it’s you that busted me in the beginning. It’s you that got into the ‘me-we’ group and it’s you that exposed my criminal past for all to see.”
“You hide in the shadows, you little creep. You hide in the shadows and you pop up with some really cruel things. You have been stalking me because you know more about me than what I know myself. I’m watching you, I’ve been watching you for two years, but now been as we’re going to bring it all out in the open, let’s have the bloody lot. I’m watching you and I’m going to make charges against you if I can.”
“And you [sharing a screenshot of the Twitter handle of Gin Perdide, @GPerdide], you little bastard. Who are you? You were watching me. Everytime you talk about me, you put the word ‘criminal,’ ‘convict,’ ‘madam.’ You’ve got a, I don’t even know who you are, but I’ll tell you what, I will get Twitter to find out who you are and anybody else who keeps calling me a ‘criminal’ or a ‘racist’ or ‘deranged.’”
“Those three things are like red rags to a bull and my birth sign is Taurus the bull and my birthday is the same day as the Queen. We are built with the same steel backbone. I’m thirty years younger than her. God bless her and I will come for all of you, but meanwhile, meanwhile, you can just sit there and s**t yourself quietly and I’ll be coming for you.”
“Thanks for listening everybody. I’ll be back later. Honestly, this will wash over me. It’s just right now, I am absolutely tamping [Welsh adjective meaning ‘extremely angry’] mad.”
In her uniquely chirpy ‘Yankee Wally’ style, in the description box, Quinlan added
“Sorry, I forgot to say Cheerio!”
“Now you’ve seen me at my worst…. Or, have you?”
“It’s very hard for me to keep an even keel when someone’s upset me so badly.”
“People that have mental health problems, never ever get them totally ‘fixed.’ They are usually suppressed with antidepressants and antipsychotics. I’m on huge doses of both.”
“But, when Scobie has the audacity to call me ‘deranged’ … It triggered me in a way only other sufferers can understand. “
“Heck, I have not worked with therapy counselling psychiatrists and drugs for 20 years to be diagnosed as DERANGED!”
“#omidscobie said a very very bad thing. and he will learn not to verbally abuse those who are not as strong as him
“And everybody else whose insulted me. You will all be made accountable.”
“I LOVE MY ONLINE FRIENDS DEARLY and I will defend you too.”
“CHEERIO!”
Responses to Omid Scobie’s vexatious tweet about Sadie Quinlan
As her chirping crooner chum Christopher Mason parties in prison-orange pants with her other mates, ‘Grubby Ghislaine’ Maxwell languishes in a paper jump suit; look at who and what she’s missing out on in the Hamptons… For her, it’s Krug-less via a bit of “Orange Is The New Black”
Christopher Mason used to like to chirp for Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein about seriously sordid sexual antics, he liked to sing songs for their decidedly deviant associate Donald Trump and last Saturday, he put in appearance at a party where many of the incarcerated one’s (former) friends were present. Ironically (or intentionally) for this super special occasion minus their mucky madam appendage, the author and crooner Mason wore ‘prison-orange’ pants and sported orange loafers.
British-American transplant Mason, for once without one of his trademark and decidedly dodgy bow ties, perhaps channeled the “Orange Is The New Black pokey look” to remind fellow guests of the plight of their one-time chum, Ghislaine – after all she was stuck in a cell she’s claiming is sewage, rat and cockroach infested whilst they were all out in the Hamptons necking Krug and bingeing on caviar.
Though social butterflies and famous faces have hurriedly distanced themselves from the ‘Bouncing Czech’s’ poison spawn, many associates and friends of Miss Maxwell (or Mrs Scott Borgerson, as she ought to really be known) were present at a gathering at the ‘Grosvenor Atterbury Estate’ at 199 Coopers Necks Lane in Southampton, New York on 12th June 2021.
Owned currently by a “Manhattan real estate developer (DUMBO in Brooklyn) David Walentas,” according to the New York Social Diary’s David Patrick Columbia, the 6pm to 8pm bash at the ritzy residence was “designed” and hosted by a “major organizer [sic] of smart, chic, grand (and fun) parties” named Bronson van Wyck. Whether ‘Grubby Ghislaine’ was a conversational subject is unreported, but it’s pretty likely she was high on the agenda.
Of the event for 100 “prominent” and “not-so-underprivileged” people, Mr Columbia instead peacocked:
“The roadway along Coopers Neck was jammed with enthusiastic residents looking forward to a good time.”
“And a good time was had by all. And then there was the huge excitement of everybody seeing everybody – many for the first time in months. It was a real reunion celebration. Even Brooke Shields who has been recovering from a terrible accident and surgeries, made it to the party, looking like the top of the morning and showing no sign of what she’d been through.”
Individuals who’ve been snapped with Ghislaine Maxwell previously, aside from ‘Orange Pants’ Mason, at the “huge hit” evening numbered Tory Burch, Candace Bushnell, Tiffany Dubin and Martha Stewart. Whether Christopher Mason burst into song – as he’d done previously back in 1993 – about Jeffrey Epstein’s egg-shaped penis thankfully remains unknown.
Pictured top: Christopher Mason in his prison visiting appropriate orange pants and loafers at the party (centre) and with his mucky mucker Ghislaine Maxwell previously (left); Ghislaine Maxwell on another occasion with another of last Saturday’s party guests, ‘Sex and the City’ author Candace Bushnell.
Ex-jailbird Martha Stewart at the fat bash on Saturday with Peggy Siegal (left); Martha Stewart with Ghislaine Maxwell previously (right).Christopher Mason in decidedly conservative black tie in 2007 with Ghislaine Maxwell and Allegra Hicks, Amy Fine Collins and Freddy Leiba.Two former ‘photo-friends’ Ghislaine Maxwell didn’t get to hang out with at the ritzy party in Southampton on Saturday 12th June 2021 snapped with her previously, fashion designer Tory Burch (left) and Sotheby’s New York fashion vice president Tiffany Dubin (right).The scene of the 100-person bash organised by “Rolls-Royce of party planners” Bronson van Wyck lacking only Ghislaine Maxwell on 12th June 2021… 199 Coopers Neck Lane, Southampton, New York, NY 11968, USA is currently on sale for £25 million ($35 million, €29 million or درهم129 million) through Brown Harris Stevens. It features 14,619 square foot of accommodation, includes 11 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms and stands on a plot of 3 acres.
Christopher Mason on Ghislaine Maxwell
Her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein:
“He was her boyfriend, but she was his Gal Friday.”
Of what the mucky madam did for Epstein:
“She leapt to the occasion when there was anything he needed she could provide. She hugely expanded Jeffrey’s social universe.”
Of when she talked about Epstein:
“[There was always] a flash of excitement in her eyes.”
“She seemed utterly fascinated and thrilled with the life that he offered her and it seemed she would go to any length to satisfy his whims.”
Christopher Mason’s cringeworthily crude ‘cappella’ for Jeffery Epstein’s 40th birthday (at the behest of Ghislaine Maxwell in January 1993)
With the benefit of hindsight, Mason’s ‘song’ is decidedly sickening and sordid and frankly should join the archives with the ‘music’ of Rolf Harris and Gary Glitter. It shockingly talks of the later convicted and thankfully now croaked paedophile’s erections and goes as follows:
Poor Jeffrey Epstein is 40, oy vey!
Life must be tough, his hair is already so gray
He sure looks older, but it’s clear from his smile
The older he gets, the more juvenile
Ghislaine is lavishing him with her affections
She claims he has 24-hour erections
Sounds like he’s busy, now ain’t that berserk
How does he find the time to get off to work
He wakes when the cock crows while everyone slumbers
He rivals Einstein when crunching those numbers
He taught at Dalton: The naughty boy blushes
To think of schoolgirls and all of their crushes
Christopher Mason subsequently wrote other poems for Jeffrey Epstein. In one he was described, according to the Daily Mail, as “’Silverado,’ as if he were a gray-haired cowboy… Urban cowboy desperado.”
Classy or creepy? We leave that to you to decide.
In 2008, Christopher Mason spoke to CBNC about the scandal that enveloped the husband of another party guest at 199 Coopers Neck Lane, Southampton last Saturday – Judy Taubman, the billionaire widow of the disgraced former Sotheby’s owner turned eventual jailbird (like Ghislaine Maxwell), A. Alfred Taubman (1924 – 2015). Mr Taubman appeared in the famous Maxwell-Epstein ‘black book,’ naturally.
On a different note, in 2014, University of Cambridge educated Christopher Mason sang about Kim Kardashian’s arse. Ms. Kardashian was unsurprisingly not listed on the ‘New York Social Diary’ as amongst those present at last Saturday’s party in either their ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘C’ lists even. We imagine she was glad.Also present at the gathering at the ‘Grosvenor Atterbury Estate’ gathering was financier Euan Rellie. In July 2020, he tweeted of Alan Dershowitz: “This guy @AlanDersh is protesting way too much” after the lawyer and former defender of amongst others Claus von Bülow leapt to the defence of the alleged paedophile procurer Ghislaine Maxwell in ‘The Spectator.’
EXCLUSIVE – On the first anniversary of ‘Randy Andy’ Prince Andrew’s juggernaut wreck BBC interview about Jeffrey Epstein, authors Nigel Cawthorne and Kirby Sommers share their thoughts with ‘The Steeple Times’ reports Matthew Steeples
Exactly one year ago this evening, Prince Andrew no doubt sat down in an armchair with his batshit bonkers live-in ex-wife ‘Fergie’ onside ready to heap congratulations upon his chubby ego. The telly box centre stage in Royal Lodge, the toe sucking lover was no doubt whacking back a vat or ten of bubbles and munching on a sledge of sausages. Boringly, the non-sweater was likely just dribbling into a Diet Coke.
Speaking to The Steeple Times exclusively to mark the first anniversary of the Duke of York’s juggernaut wreck of an interview with Emily Maitlis for the BBC, Kirby Sommers, an activist, feminist, author and sex slave survivor, remarked:
“What has been fascinating one year after the disastrous interview Prince Andrew gave to the BBC is that Ghislaine Maxwell did not make a public statement of any sort in his defence. My take on this is not just an on-going acceptance that he lied and in fact did have sex with Virginia Giuffre, a trafficked victim of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, but that in addition to this: Maxwell would face a second slander lawsuit from Giuffre should she claim ‘Virginia is lying about Prince Andrew and nothing happened.’ Maxwell settled the first defamation lawsuit with Giuffre in 2017.”
“Prince Andrew’s ill-advised interview showed the world he depended on Jeffrey Epstein for financial advice and introductions on Wall Street. It appears he received additional perks from his friendship with Epstein. Furthermore, it is painfully clear to all who follow this case that Ghislaine Maxwell was not the ‘plus one’ the prince claimed her to be. His friendship with Epstein appears to have been more important than any previous relationship he may have had with Maxwell.”
“It is also apparent there are forces at work to continue to keep Prince Andrew from admitting guilt. His name was redacted in the documents that were just released from the Giuffre v Maxwell lawsuit. It is, however, in keeping with the methodology: his name, if you recall, was asked not to be mentioned by a judge in lawsuits against Jeffrey Epstein.”
“His popularity has disappeared. His name is scorned. The palace has even removed his Twitter handle from their website and souvenirs bearing his likeness from their gift shop.”
“What has to happen at this point is Prince Andrew must take responsibility for his actions. He cannot continue to be a pampered child as he approaches his 61st birthday. If not for himself, if not for his children, if not for Virginia Giuffre, then he must do so for the monarchy.”
Adding his thoughts and sharing his extensive knowledge on this first anniversary, Nigel Cawthorne, author of Prince Andrew: Epstein, Maxwell and the Palace, told The Steeple Times late Sunday:
“What do you do if you shoot yourself in the foot in front of millions of people and you are a soldier at heart? This was Prince Andrew’s night-time puzzle a year ago. You march on and hope that you won’t ambush yourself again, he must have thought.”
“Unfortunately, the prince was not blessed with good luck. He scored another own body blow when his words angered the US Attorney investigating Epstein’s sex ring so much that the full force of US legal power abroad was deployed to try and get the prince’s testimony.”
“Since the prince is his own worst enemy, there really is no telling what will happen next. Although November 2020 is only the anniversary of the interview, the palace’s ‘Epstein Affair’ has been gathering momentum for almost a decade. It has been so spectacularly mishandled that it could go any which way at this point, which makes it a far absorbing drama than Meghan and Harry’s even if the backdrop couldn’t be more tawdry.”
“Is he the typical – and now much maligned – middle-aged white male relying on privilege as Epstein’s victims say, or a victim of the victims as he has solidly maintained throughout? Andrew has consistently categorically denied all allegations against him. Though soon a grandfather, the prince is unlikely voluntarily to hang up his crown any time soon.”
Likely to lose all his titles by the end of the year, Prince Andrew’s ‘annus horribilis’ is complete. The Queen is supposedly not talking to him and now the cryptically coded message we published in January from The Times (which again follows below and which could indeed have been from Ghislaine Maxwell perhaps) now likely will prove true. No more “good wishes” need follow after this anniversary.
In Memoriam – Private
TO ANDREW THE LOVE OF MY LIFE
Did you ever love someone deeply, and out they didn’t love you?
Did you ever feel they weren’t kind to you, and wonder what you should do?
Did you ever blindly trust in love, but your love didn’t want to stay?
Love only causes problems, it happens every day
You wonder how they can sleep at night
You wonder how they can feel delight
You wonder how love could ever feel light
When you are left weighed down by fright
Love hurts so much, the price you pay is high
Choosing between love and death, I’d much prefer to die
Take my advice, don’t fall in love, you’ll get hurt before it’s through
You see, I ought to know, I fell in love with you.
Pictured top: Prior to his disastrous interview, ‘Air Miles Andy’ used to jet around the world smirking with foreign dignitaries and dodgy dictators. He must truly miss those jollies and especially all that jetting. Now, on the anniversary of this juggernaut wreck, this smug sop finds himself nothing other than a social pariah.
Randy’s Anniversary – That photo (Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts and Ghislaine Maxwell): This image undoubtedly remains likely to be the ultimate source of Prince Andrew’s undoing. He continues to deny it as a fake, but he’s failed to prove it to be such and on the anniversary of the BBC interview, his future looks even more bleak.Randy’s Anniversary – Sausage muncher Sarah Ferguson was variously said to be the person who encouraged and the person whom discouraged Prince Andrew to give the interview. Given her childlike style, we’d suggest the former. Randy’s Anniversary – In the year since ‘Andrewgate,’ Ghislaine Maxwell – pictured here with Kira Faiman and fellow jailbird Martha Stewart – has hit the clink. Remarkably, the Duke of York last met with the breathtakingly arrogant mucky madam in June 2019 when she was in London for the Cash & Rocket London-Monte Carlo ‘charity’ rally.Randy’s Anniversary – A captioned image of the Queen with Boris Johnson that went viral shortly after the interview has proven partially true. ‘Bosie The Clown’ has certainly delivered on the “really stupid” front, but equally ‘Randy Andy’ and ‘Fergie’ have kept on shoving their gumboots in the proverbial.Randy’s Anniversary – The ultimate impact of the interview was perfectly summed up by the ‘New York Post’ and on the anniversary of it, this arrogant prat finds himself seeking ever deeper into the sewage tank.
Author Kirby Sommers reveals the actualite of Epstein-Maxwell documentation; more than six pages about Prince Andrew are missing
New York based “sex slave survivor and advocate for human rights” Kirby Sommers has taken to Twitter to highlight what many suspected in suggesting that there are a number of key pages missing from court documentation about the sordid activities of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
In a tweet about documents from the Giuffre vs. Maxwell lawsuit, posted on Sunday, Sommers – the author of Jeffrey Epstein: Predator, Spy – declared:
“Virginia Giuffre confided in her then boyfriend about having been instructed to have sex with Prince Andrew.”
“In his deposition when [he] begins to describe that she was ‘scared for her safety’ — the deposition, at this point, those pages are missing. 6 pages with that info missing.”
Sommers undoubtedly has a point and one can only anticipate that the next tranche of Maxwell’s deposition – if and when that gets released – will sadly likely be equally lacking in actualite.
Correction: This article was updated 1pm GMT, 3rd November 2020 to reflect further information supplied by Kirby Sommers.
The Actualite of Andrew – Kirby Sommers’ tweet revealed what many already suspected: The document released only contains the partial first deposition of Ghislaine Maxwell.
Tiny French pied à terre on the Côte d’Azur once owned by the ‘Maigret’ author Georges Simenon for sale for just £107,000; he described the property as his ‘house of happiness’
Whilst some of the supposed ‘bargain’ properties we’ve featured recently – such as this £15,000 Edwardian ‘fixer upper’ house in Buffalo, Kansas – are in obscure parts of America and might seem a little off-piste and quirky, an especially quaint £107,000 Côte d’Azur pied à terre will no doubt appeal to literary lovers.
Bought by the Maigret author Georges Simenon (1903 – 1989) in 1956 as a birthday present for his second wife, Denyse Ouimet, and featuring usable space extending to 272.2 square foot, the property includes a reception room, kitchen, bathroom and mezzanine sleeping area. A separate entrance leads to a second bedroom and bathroom.
Offered for sale last year for £161,000, this petite pad in Cagnes-sur-Mer has recently been reduced in price by 34% to £107,00. The selling agents are Emmanuelle Minassian International Real Estate – whose offices are situated directly next door.
The Numbers – 98 Montée de la Bourgade, Cagnes-sur-Mer, Haut-de-Cagnes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA), 06800, France
September 2020 – Reduced in price to £107,000 ($142,000, €120,000 or درهم522,000) through estate agents Emmanuelle Minassian International Real Estate. The cost to fix the roof has been estimated at £12,110 ($16,060, €13,550 or درهم58,975) by the selling agents.
November 2019 – Offered for sale for £161,000 ($213,000, €180,000 or درهم781,000) through estate agents Emmanuelle Minassian International Real Estate.
Pictured top: The former Cagnes-sur-Mer home of Georges Simeon – which he is said to have described as his “house of happiness” – and the acclaimed author himself. The Belgian born writer published over 500 novels and was capable of writing 60 to 80 pages per day. He had at least two dozen pseudonyms and around 550 million copies of his works have been printed.
Georges Simenon’s ‘House of Happiness’ – The reception room features an open fireplace and tiled flooring.Georges Simenon’s ‘House of Happiness’ – Georges Simeon somehow managed to live at 98 montée de la Bourgade with his third wife and their three children in the 1950s in spite of it being quite beyond tiny. His initial ‘S’ is still to be found on in the ironmongery on the external staircase railings of the building.Georges Simenon’s ‘House of Happiness’ – 98 Montée de la Bourgade is situated on a picture perfect side street in Cagnes-sur-Mer. Amongst attractions of the town are the Hippodrome de la Côte d’Azur, a well-known horse racing track, and a 2.5-mile long beach.
Rolls-Royce owned by “maverick” Demon Internet dot-com millionaire Cliff Stanford to be auctioned; an au pair he employed was tragically murdered by a British serial sex offender in Spain; he was convicted of “email spying” in a scandal featuring gerrymanderer Dame Shirley Porter
Cliff Stanford is best-known for having established the early dot-com success story Demon Internet in 1992. He had a (boom, boom) “demon touch” and sold the company for £66 million in 1998.
After pocketing £30 million personally, one of Stanford’s first moves was to buy a private plane and “one of the most lavish Rolls-Royces then available.”
He paid the equivalent (with a discount) of £265,000 today for the opulent Rolls-Royce and declared it: “My favourite present to myself.”
The 1998 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur is now to be auctioned for less than a tenth of that price with a lower estimate of just £18,000.
Stanford’s Spanish au pair was tragically murdered in 1999 and subsequently in a totally unconnected series of events, he was convicted of “email spying” on notorious Conservative politician and gerrymanderer Dame Shirley Porter and her son.
According to his personal Twitter account, Stanford is now based in Tallinn, Estonia; he recently tweeted in support of Dominic Cummings, but neglected to mention if he would have loaned his motor for the spinner’s infamous Barnard Castle drive.
In 1998, “flamboyant” Internet pioneer Cliff Stanford paid the equivalent of £265,000 in today’s money for a brand-new motor. He did not opt for the eco-friendly kind-of-car that today’s tech titans drift around in, but instead slam dunked and went for the ultimate symbol of flash – a Rolls-Royce Silver Spur with every conceivable extra.
Stanford’s long wheel base ride – a vehicle that would have been the envy even of Charles Frere, the business tycoon bounder of Howards’ Way, in terms of its lavishness – personified excess and reflected the persona of a man whom “laughingly” considered getting the numbers ‘666’ incorporated into the dial-up for his Demon Internet company’s software.
The Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit and the longer wheelbase Silver Spur (and their Bentley equivalents) were the favoured mode of conveyance of business moguls in the 1980s and 1990s. Charles Frere (played by the late Tony Anholt, died 2002), a stereotypical example of such a character, was regularly seen in such motors in the BBC classic ‘Howards’ Way’ also.
Born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, Clifford Stanford started his career as an accountant, but “found his way to the Internet via a love of computers.” He hit the jackpot with Demon Internet in 1992 and after selling that company to Scottish Telecom for £66 million, claimed his empire would be “bigger than Branson’s” according to the Guardian.
Speaking to the paper in December 2001, he continued: “I always wanted to be wealthy. Money doesn’t buy happiness but lack of it can lead to misery. Now I really enjoy my life, I do whatever I like and no-one tells me otherwise” and next he set up another venture, Redbus Investments, with Dame Shirley Porter’s son, John, as chairman. It listed on the stock exchange in March 2000 and the company’s activities included not only Internet hosting, but also a landmine disposal system and forays into football and popular music.
Redbus, according to ZDNet in Sept2005, was where “Stanford’s trouble seemed to start.” Kiss-and-tell scandals involving a “champagne fueled romp” at Claridge’s and his being banned from the hotel ensued, whilst in 1999 his Spanish au pair was murdered by a serial British sex offender named Tony King – who was only jailed in 2006 after a previous wrongly convicted suspect was cleared in 2002.
In 2001, the Guardian reported on the tycoon’s associations with Max Clifford – with a plainly hoodwinked Stanford remarking: “Max always has loads of really interesting people at his events” of the long since disgraced and now thankfully dead paedophile – and mentioned an unsuccessful investment of £1 million in a “badly managed” girl band called Girls@play. It had The Apprentice’s Alan Sugar’s niece as its lead singer, but ultimately was “a complete disaster really,” the businessman lamented.
By 2005, Redbus had unraveled spectacularly and in September that year, Sandford was convicted of intercepting emails belonging to his former friend John Porter. He tried to claim his actions were legal, but after being given a suspended sentence and ordered to pay a fine of £20,000 and £7,000 in prosecution costs, a later appeal was denied.
Divorced, a father of two and reinvented as an “innovation strategist” according to his LinkedIn.com page, Stanford is now is based in Tallinn, Estonia with his American-German science fiction writer partner Sylvia Spruck Wrigley. Aside from a website named May.be that lists their many projects, the tech expert is an enthusiastic chess player and user of Twitter.
As well as tweeting enthusiastically about a “clean break Brexit” and complaining about Amazon, Turkish Airlines and the Estonian take on fish and chips on the social media site, he recently came out in support of Dominic Cummings. Of Boris Johnson’s puppet master’s recent problems, Stanford surmised: “Witch hunt.”
Historics Classic and Sportscar Auctioneers will sell Cliff Stanford’s Rolls-Royce Silver Spur on the 18th July and have set an estimate of just £18,000 to £22,000. They describe the vehicle as “one of the highest specified cars we have seen and presents well in black with black leather seats, carpets and headlining,” but neglect to detail any of the high jinxes that this larger-than-life character no doubt conducted from its rear seating area.
Cliff Martin Stanford (born 1954) – The Names & Numbers
18th July 2020 – Cliff Stanford’s one-owner-from new 1998 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur – registration S110 NGN – to be auctioned by Historics Classic and Sportscar Auctioneers with an estimate of £18,000 to £22,000 ($22,200 to $27,100, €19,800 to €24,200 or درهم81,600 to درهم99,700) at their Windsorview Lakes sale.
June 2009 – Co-founded Power Ethernet. He describes this firm as bringing “disruptive technology to fruition.”
September 2005 – Convicted and given a suspended sentence of 6 months and a fine of £20,000 ($24,700, €22,000 or درهم90,600). A later hearing denied leave to appeal in February 2006.
2003 – Charged under the Computer Misuse Act and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 with the interception of emails between Jonathan Porter, one-time chairman of Redbus Interhouse, and his disgraced mother, Dame Shirley Porter – a woman best known for the “homes for votes” scandal in Westminster.
March 2000 – Floated Redbus Interhouse on the stock market.
October 1999 – Stanford’s Dutch-Spanish au pair, Rocío Wanninkhof (1979 – 1999), is abducted and stabbed to death. He offered a £50,000 ($61,000, €54,000 or درهم224,000) reward immediately and then doubled the sum in September 2003 “to anyone who could provide information” according to The Independent. After the estranged female lover of Wanninkhof’s mother was wrongly convicted for the murder in 2001 and subsequently cleared, a British sex offender, Tony King, was jailed for the killing in 2006 for 19 years.
1998 – Cliff Stanford paid £150,000 ($185,000, €165,000 or درهم680,000) for a 1998 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur, the “last production chassis number for UK sale.” He supposedly secured a discount of £20,000 ($24,700, €22,000 or درهم90,600) on the list price from dealers Jack Barclay and added extras including “a wine cooler to rear armrest, centenary door panels, picnic tables with separate stowage compartment, TV monitor/video to rear compartment and electrically adjustable lumbar support.”
1998 – Founded Redbus Investments four days after the sale of Demon Internet.
1998 – Sold Demon Internet to Scottish Telecom for £66 million ($81 million, €73 million or درهم299 million) with 172,000 subscribers. Stanford became an early dot-com multi-millionaire, personally netted £30 million ($37 million, €33 million or درهم136 million) and moved to Brussels “to avoid capital gains tax” according to the Guardian.
June 1992 – Cliff Stanford founded Demon Internet with 200 subscribers. He had been brought up in Southend-on-Sea, Essex by his single-parent mother and began his career in accountancy.
The turbo-charged long wheelbase Rolls-Royce Silver Spur is described as a “classic machine.”The interior is in as new condition.The black leather seats have been well-cared for.The model was the first Rolls-Royce to feature a retractable Spirit of Ecstasy mascot on its bonnet.Rolls-Royce gave the car a 6.75-litre V8 engine.
Restaurant critic Tom Parker-Bowles does a ‘Brenda from Bristol’ in suggesting Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s telly box appearances “drive him mad” whilst chatting to William Sitwell on his Instagram TV show ‘Biting Talk’
“Winging it that health fella Hancock, winging it, I just can’t watch him, drives me mad,” lamented Tom Parker-Bowles on William Sitwell’s jolly twice weekly Biting Talk Instagram TV show on Tuesday.
Sounding a bit like “not another one” squawking ‘Brenda from Bristol’ in his spot-on summary, the Mail on Sunday restaurant critic did indeed share the view of the nation about the hapless health secretary. Here, in Hancock, is someone Brenda would simply surmise just perfectly with her trademark “You’re joking! Absolutely weird! I just can’t stand him!”
Continuing, the Duchess of Cornwall’s “quaffed” son reflected the public’s desire for simplicity in commenting: “I’ve really missed going to the pub for a pint with friends, it’s just these things we take for granted… I am not particularly interested in high art or tasting menus… I would take a rubbish pub for now.”
Of the impending reopening of boozers and eateries, Parker-Bowles called for “common sense and respect” and again in Brenda-esque “we need a bit of guts to get us going” fashion added:
“We all want to make sure this awful pandemic is wiped out in the end… Let’s concentrate on the positive… But, hopefully everyone will pile back in.”
“This is our life, it is our joy… It is about convincing the public… This is not the time to be taking down restaurants, it is about the time to be looking for the good. This is a time that all of us come together to fight for restaurants, to fight for them and get them back.”
Concluding, of to his life in lockdown, the writer shared some of his experiences and thoughts. He declared his dislike for the hideously vapid phrase “the new normal,” his desire to see friends again and announced:
“I’m reading the Alan Clark’s diaries again. They’re fantastic. He wouldn’t do well today, but who knows, he might. He’d probably be on Breitbart or something like that.”
Brenda would most certainly agree.
William Sitwell’s ‘Biting Talk’ airs on Instagram TV ‘live’ on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 6pm GMT. Be sure to tune in!
Pearl clad pensioner ‘Brenda from Bristol’ became the unlikely star of the 2017 General Election when she shared her views about politics with a BBC reporter. This 75-year old retired secretary spoke for the nation in remarking: “You’re joking? Not another one!” Oh for God’s sake, I can’t honestly… I can’t stand this. There’s too much politics going on at the moment. Why does she [Theresa May] need to do it?” and later added: “There’s hardly anybody in any of the parties that you’d put your life on the line for. We need somebody who’s got a little bit of guts to get us all going”.Devoted foodies William Sitwell and Tom Parker-Bowles have previously worked together on the popular BBC television series ‘Celebrity MasterChef’ (pictured above with fellow critic Grace Dent).William Sitwell’s ‘Biting Talk’ is a twice weekly “must watch” on Instagram TV. Each episode lasts 45-minutes and aside from regulars such as the cocktail maestro Farhad Heydari, guests have numbered Andrew Heald of Fishers Gin (reviewed recently in ‘The Steeple Times’) and Charlie Gilkes, co-founder of the Inception Group. Sitwell has recently launched a new venture, William’s House Wines (to be featured in ‘The Steeple Times’ shortly).Tom Parker-Bowles pictured with his mother, the Duchess of Cornwall, at the launch of his cookbook ‘Christmas & Other Winter Feasts’ at Fortnum & Mason in St James’s, London in October 2018. The event, in the store’s Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon, was also attended by Richard Bacon, Jimmy Carr, Tess Daly and Stanley Tucci according to ‘Hello!’ magazine.
Petronella Wyatt is spot on in quoting Oscar Wilde on morality in art; “books are either well written or badly written,” they are not “moral or immoral”
In the preface to his philosophical novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde wrote: “There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are either well written or badly written. That is all.”
Shared on Twitter by the witty journalist and author Petronella Wyatt at a time when ludicrously Gone With the Wind is under attack even, this is a timely reminder that works of art should be subjected to aesthetic judgment rather than moral judgment.
The bosses of the BBC and Netflix would do well to remember such.
Pictured top:Ben Barnes starred as Dorian Gray in the 2009 British fantasy-horror adaptation of 1890 novel ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray.’
Petronella Wyatt’s tweet pointed out: “Oscar Wilde, who knew about persecution, said: ‘There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are either well written or badly written. That is all.’ ‘Gone With the Wind,’ published in 1936, won the Pulitzer Prize.’
