Travis Elborough

1 month ago | thespectator.com | Travis Elborough |Graeme Thomson Paul Thomson |Alexander Larman |Justin Brierley

When the Puerto Rican guitarist Carlos Alomar first met David Bowie, he didn’t think a man could turn a whiter shade of pale. The singer looked emaciated; his complexion teetered on translucency, and weighing only 95 pounds, the only signs of life were a pulse and a mop of orange hair. It was the mid-Seventies, and Bowie was touring America deep in the throes of addiction — the “darkest years” of his life — surviving on a paltry diet of red peppers, cigarettes, milk and cocaine.

1 month ago | the-tls.co.uk | Henry Hitchings |Joe Moran |Travis Elborough |Timothy Brook

“Our romantic affair with the automobile has cooled”, writes Witold Rybczynski in this brisk, informative history of automotive design. What was once passionate – an infatuation that also seemed an enlargement of self – now feels “more like a loveless marriage”. The insight is hardly new. Indeed, it was offered at least as long ago as 1958, by John C. Keats in his book The Insolent Chariots.

1 month ago | the-tls.co.uk | Travis Elborough |Joe Moran |Henry Hitchings |Timothy Brook

“I’ve got this thing about Croydon”, David Bowie – who was raised in Bromley – told Q magazine in 1999. It was my nemesis, I hated Croydon with a real vengeance. It represented everything I didn’t want in my life, everything I wanted to get away from. I think it’s the most derogatory thing I can say about somebody or something: “God, it’s so fucking Croydon!” It was gonna be the big second city to London, but it never came to be.

Nov 13, 2024 | thespectator.com | Aidan McLaughlin |Travis Elborough |Daniel DePetris |Gavin Mortimer

Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign spent more than $1 billion in three months, according to a detailed report from the Washington Examiner’s Gabe Kaminsky. FEC records not only show that Kamala paid $1 million to Oprah Winfrey’s production company, but six figures on a building set for her Call Her Daddy podcast, as well as millions on digital consultants and “event production” — also known as her supposed “in” with the celebrity world.

Nov 13, 2024 | thespectator.com | Aidan McLaughlin |Travis Elborough |Matt Ridley |Gavin Mortimer

Around 2:45 on the morning of November 6, Donald Trump beckoned Dana White to the lectern to address the sea of MAGA-hatted supporters assembled to celebrate the former president’s election victory. In his brief but animated remarks at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, the CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship made sure to thank a cadre of figures who might just have been the key to Trump’s shocking triumph.