Ferdinand Mount

Nov 9, 2024 | washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com | Ferdinand Mount

Ferdinand Mount, author of Big Caesars and Little Caesars, is a British writer who doesn’t seem to buy this American exceptionalism. Though he gives considerable space to our once and perhaps future chief executive, he bestows pride of place on his own nation’s troubling former prime minister, Johnson. I don’t think you have to be a blinkered American jingoist to believe Mount is misjudging the relative risks to liberal democracy.

Sep 26, 2024 | nytimes.com | Ferdinand Mount

The British Conservative Party has long boasted of being the most successful political party on the planet. The unimaginable scale of its defeat on July 4, when it won the fewest seats in its history, looks like the downfallof moderate conservatism. It appears to be the final straw for the center-right parties offering pragmatism, prosperity and opportunity that have dominated Western politics since World War II.

Sep 2, 2024 | lrb.co.uk | William Dalrymple |Ferdinand Mount

The sun​ still sparkles on the sapphire sea at Mamallapuram. The shoppers and sightseers still dawdle along the harbour front, gawping at the astonishing sculptures carved on the rocks behind: the gods and goddesses, bare-breasted and smiling; the lions, water buffalo, cobras and, of course, elephants. Nothing much has changed since the seventh-century poet Dandin, the greatest Sanskrit storyteller, sauntered along the prom ‘with eyes blossoming wide in wonder’.

Feb 14, 2024 | lrb.co.uk | David Horspool |Ferdinand Mount

Carefree:​ that must be the essence of the sporting idea, whether you are doing it with Amaryllis in the shade, or on the village green with your grandchild Wilhelmine. You are disported, carried off out of yourself. In botany, a ‘sport’ is the wayward offshoot of an otherwise predictable shrub.

Nov 11, 2023 | washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com | Bernie Taupin |Ferdinand Mount |Peter Bellerby |Adam Thirlwell

Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton & Me by Bernie Taupin (Hachette Books). Reviewed by Michael Causey. “As the book’s title implies, Taupin as memoirist is not going for a comprehensive, linear look at his remarkable life. But it’s chockfull of intriguing celebrity encounters, detours, and pithy, astute comments about those he’s encountered on the ride. Alice Cooper becomes a great friend. Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham is an ass. Andy Warhol is boring.