Alec Marsh

Manningtree

Journalist & author of historical thrillers incl. Drabble & Harris books and CUT AND RUN Writes @Spectator @TheFieldmag @Telegraph @SpearsMagazine

Articles

The blossoming career of Cedric Morris

2 weeks ago | spectator.co.uk | Alec Marsh

In the winner-takes-all world of modern art, there’s every chance you might not have heard of Cedric Morris. Why should you? No matter how much you sweeten the tea, the Welshman, born in 1889, was no Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko or Salvador Dali.
Are you tough enough for the school run?

3 weeks ago | spectator.co.uk | Alec Marsh

Nothing in life prepares you for the school run. In theory, on paper, it ought to be idyllic. What could be better than feeding a nutritious breakfast to your nine- and five-year-old, before scrubbing their cherubic upturned faces and combing down their buoyant hair, and then helping them get dressed and out to the car for the short drive to school, whereupon they can skip through the gates happily to education-land?
The overlooked brilliance of BBC’s The Hour

1 month ago | spectator.co.uk | Alec Marsh

With reluctance – but enticed by its surprisingly starry cast and the fact that it had landed, ironically enough, on Netflix – I recently tuned in to The Hour, the BBC’s 2011 political drama series. It’s about a BBC TV news programme being launched in 1956, against the backdrop of the Suez Crisis. And, goodness me, isn’t it good?
The sorry state of our public conveniences

1 month ago | spectator.co.uk | Alec Marsh

Britain’s public loos are a national embarrassment. If you are in any doubt, head to Liverpool Street Station and spend a penny. It’s unquestionably the most odious and unpleasant public lavatory anywhere in the supposedly civilised world. It has to be experienced to be believed, but suffice it to say that the level of cleanliness on display would make a Medicine Sans Frontier doctor fresh from West Africa recoil in fear and reach for their PPE.
Rise of 'alternative banking platforms' poses challenge for established incumbents

1 month ago | spearswms.com | Alec Marsh

Established international and UK private banks are under pressure from the emergence of tech-enabled challenger banking services providers like never before, the Spear's 500 Live 2025 conference was told.
'Crazy' luxury tax is disaster for Britain, warns the King's tailor

1 month ago | telegraph.co.uk | Alec Marsh

Her father, Tiny Rowland, the buccaneering Lonrho tycoon and one-time owner of The Observer who died in 1998, was an Anderson & Sheppard customer and acquired a controlling 80pc share in the business in the 1970s after being approached by cutters seeking a buyout partner.
Save the Red Arrows!

2 months ago | spectator.co.uk | Alec Marsh

You will be aware that we face a national emergency. I’m not referring to the fact that our closest ally has seemingly taken leave of its senses or the astonishing news that apparently one in four Britons is now disabled – nor that more than nine million of us of working age are economically inactive. I’m not even talking about the parlous state of the NHS. The national emergency I’m referring to is one that trumps even Trump, so brace yourselves. Soon we are going to run out of Red Arrows.
It’s time to buy a British jumper

Mar 24, 2025 | spectator.co.uk | Alec Marsh

When did you last bump into the words ‘Made in Britain’ on a jumper, shirt or pair of trousers? There’s a chance, if you’re under 40, that you’ve never actually seen those words printed in an item of clothing – ever. And that’s quite a problem, particularly when you consider that we find ourselves in an era when the Prime Minister’s favourite two words are ‘national resilience’. The simple fact is that when it comes to clothes we aren’t resilient.
John Hemingway and the lost world of Angels One Five

Mar 21, 2025 | spectator.co.uk | Alec Marsh

You will doubtless have read the news and possibly even an obituary of Group Captain John ‘Paddy’ Hemingway, the last of ‘the Few’, who died this week at the great age of 105. That he lived beyond the age of 21 is little short of miraculous, of course – given that he was shot down no fewer than four times in just a fortnight during the Battle of Britain, which claimed the lives of 544 pilots out of nearly 3,000 who fought for Fighter Command.
We need a modern Wogan

Mar 14, 2025 | spectator.co.uk | Alec Marsh

Nowadays whenever an elderly celebrity dies – consider the death last month of Gene Hackman as a case in point – one of the first things that happens is that a chunky clip of them appearing on a talk show such as Wogan or Parkinson gets shared on social media.