uk/Magazine/">Tatler get it so wrong?” or better yet, “Who has ever heard of these people?” The controversial piece about Gstaad reminded me of the good old days of the cold war in Athens, where hacks used to joke about the two countries where secrets were safe: China and Greece. In the former no-one talked; in the latter everyone did, hence no-one believed a word. When a particularly offended hostess asked me to comment on it, I admitted that I no longer read the Tatler - I used to be an editor there during the early 80's - and that I'd be almost embarrassed to be seen buying it. So it was delivered to my doorstep the next morning with a sweet note asking for my not so humble opinion. The article, by a woman I know, Vassi Chamberlain, is written in the breathless, eager-to-please, hyperbolic style that magazines which feature the rich and famous have made de riguer. At first glance the piece was not at all bad. The problem was with the people the writer featured as Gstaad stalwarts. I knew none of them and some I had never even heard of. I must be doing something right, I told myself, as these people sound pretty awful.
Check out the Tatler article for yourself:
Tatler - 'Gstaad's hot hosts', pages 1&2.pdf
Tatler - Gstaad's hot hosts', page 3.pdf
Mind you, it was not Vassi's fault. I knew for a fact that she had tried to speak to Loulou Moore but had been rebuffed. Mrs Moore does not like spilling the beans to outsiders. When Vassi rang me I told her I did not wish my name to appear in Tatler because it is a cheap celebrity magazine and I am neither cheap nor a celebrity. So what was the poor girl to do? The first rule of journalism is if you can't get the facts, you make them up. The father of this dictum is Rupert Murdoch himself, someone I have worked for in the past. Like in cold war China, the old Gstaad hands refused to talk to Vassi, so she did the next best thing; she approached social wannabees and nouveaux riche who were eager to give her access and to drop names.
When I wrote about the Rosey thirty years ago for Esquire magazine, I was given total access by the then head and owner Colonel Johannot. While I was doing my research and interviewing old boys who had gone there in the forties and fifties, I realised that the school had radically changed. Whereas once upon a time the student body was replete with scions of old moneyed families, already by 1978 the place was crawling with spoiled young people whose manners resembled those of newly rich camel drivers. When the piece appeared the headmaster swore that I would pay for it one day. A couple of weeks later, with my book about Greece gracing the window at Cadonau, the Colonel asked John, the kind Englishman who ran the book section back then, to remove it. John refused. “It's called freedom of speech,” he told Orlando Furioso. Now I read the school is threatening to leave Gstaad. I think it's a bluff, but then I haven't been near the place since my son left there. What does all this have to do with the Tatler article? Well, since 1978 the student body has got much worse as far as manners are concerned, not to mention the provenance. In the article Rosey is described as one of the world's most exclusive boarding schools! Expensive yes, exclusive hardly. Tatler also reports that the Eagle Club is the hardest club in the world to get into! The only thing I can say to that, after fifty years of being a life member is – if only that were true.
Still, the Tatler reporter did as good a job as she could under the omerta circumstances practised by the old guard. She identified one Graham Bourne and his wife as the leaders of Gstaad's social scene, which shows how out of touch some of us are. I have never heard of or seen this couple, but then I tend to drink quite a lot and am known to forget faces. There were other names which did not ring a bell, but then my hearing isn't what it used to be either. Slick magazines love to make up lists because lists cause envy and envy makes people show off and spend more and even go as far as to talk to slick magazines. Instead of naming names as to who's who in Gstaad, I will in one short sentence tell you who the real Gstaad royalty are: The locals (Except for the local policeman - woman really - who arrested me for crashing my Mini against a tree six years ago).
Check out the Tatler article for yourself:
Tatler - 'Gstaad's hot hosts', pages 1&2.pdf
Tatler - Gstaad's hot hosts', page 3.pdf
Taki Theodoracopulos, better known as Taki, is a journalist and writer, living in Gstaad, London, and New York. His column ‘High Life’ has appeared in The Spectator for the past 25 years, and he has also written for National Review, the London Sunday Times, Esquire, Vanity Fair, the New York Press, and Quest Magazine, among others. In 2002 Taki founded The American Conservative magazine with Pat Buchanan and Scott McConnell. He is also publisher of the British magazine Right Now! and has been writing for GstaadLife since its first season in 2003/4. More of his musings can be found at www.gstaadlife.com/taki and on his own website at www.takimag.com.
uk/Magazine/">Tatler get it so wrong?” or better yet, “Who has ever heard of these people?” The controversial piece about Gstaad reminded me of the good old days of the cold war in Athens, where hacks used to joke about the two countries where secrets were safe: China and Greece. In the former no-one talked; in the latter everyone did, hence no-one believed a word. When a particularly offended hostess asked me to comment on it, I admitted that I no longer read the Tatler - I used to be an editor there during the early 80's - and that I'd be almost embarrassed to be seen buying it. So it was delivered to my doorstep the next morning with a sweet note asking for my not so humble opinion. The article, by a woman I know, Vassi Chamberlain, is written in the breathless, eager-to-please, hyperbolic style that magazines which feature the rich and famous have made de riguer. At first glance the piece was not at all bad. The problem was with the people the writer featured as Gstaad stalwarts. I knew none of them and some I had never even heard of. I must be doing something right, I told myself, as these people sound pretty awful.
Check out the Tatler article for yourself:
Tatler - 'Gstaad's hot hosts', pages 1&2.pdf
Tatler - Gstaad's hot hosts', page 3.pdf
Mind you, it was not Vassi's fault. I knew for a fact that she had tried to speak to Loulou Moore but had been rebuffed. Mrs Moore does not like spilling the beans to outsiders. When Vassi rang me I told her I did not wish my name to appear in Tatler because it is a cheap celebrity magazine and I am neither cheap nor a celebrity. So what was the poor girl to do? The first rule of journalism is if you can't get the facts, you make them up. The father of this dictum is Rupert Murdoch himself, someone I have worked for in the past. Like in cold war China, the old Gstaad hands refused to talk to Vassi, so she did the next best thing; she approached social wannabees and nouveaux riche who were eager to give her access and to drop names.
When I wrote about the Rosey thirty years ago for Esquire magazine, I was given total access by the then head and owner Colonel Johannot. While I was doing my research and interviewing old boys who had gone there in the forties and fifties, I realised that the school had radically changed. Whereas once upon a time the student body was replete with scions of old moneyed families, already by 1978 the place was crawling with spoiled young people whose manners resembled those of newly rich camel drivers. When the piece appeared the headmaster swore that I would pay for it one day. A couple of weeks later, with my book about Greece gracing the window at Cadonau, the Colonel asked John, the kind Englishman who ran the book section back then, to remove it. John refused. “It's called freedom of speech,” he told Orlando Furioso. Now I read the school is threatening to leave Gstaad. I think it's a bluff, but then I haven't been near the place since my son left there. What does all this have to do with the Tatler article? Well, since 1978 the student body has got much worse as far as manners are concerned, not to mention the provenance. In the article Rosey is described as one of the world's most exclusive boarding schools! Expensive yes, exclusive hardly. Tatler also reports that the Eagle Club is the hardest club in the world to get into! The only thing I can say to that, after fifty years of being a life member is – if only that were true.
Still, the Tatler reporter did as good a job as she could under the omerta circumstances practised by the old guard. She identified one Graham Bourne and his wife as the leaders of Gstaad's social scene, which shows how out of touch some of us are. I have never heard of or seen this couple, but then I tend to drink quite a lot and am known to forget faces. There were other names which did not ring a bell, but then my hearing isn't what it used to be either. Slick magazines love to make up lists because lists cause envy and envy makes people show off and spend more and even go as far as to talk to slick magazines. Instead of naming names as to who's who in Gstaad, I will in one short sentence tell you who the real Gstaad royalty are: The locals (Except for the local policeman - woman really - who arrested me for crashing my Mini against a tree six years ago).
Check out the Tatler article for yourself:
Tatler - 'Gstaad's hot hosts', pages 1&2.pdf
Tatler - Gstaad's hot hosts', page 3.pdf
Taki Theodoracopulos, better known as Taki, is a journalist and writer, living in Gstaad, London, and New York. His column ‘High Life’ has appeared in The Spectator for the past 25 years, and he has also written for National Review, the London Sunday Times, Esquire, Vanity Fair, the New York Press, and Quest Magazine, among others. In 2002 Taki founded The American Conservative magazine with Pat Buchanan and Scott McConnell. He is also publisher of the British magazine Right Now! and has been writing for GstaadLife since its first season in 2003/4. More of his musings can be found at www.gstaadlife.com/taki and on his own website at www.takimag.com.
