High life

Rave review

Taki

New 3"(fi.1c My publisher is an extremely pleasant young man who fervently believes H. L. Mencken's maxim that one never goes broke underestimating the Puh„s taste. I say this because when he decideo publish the collected works of Taki advised him against it. What I hadn't take° into account was the great American pahhe,i My publisher, however, had. And went 00" with it. And proved Mencken was right.Asi of this writing, the immortal prose ° Turkey's greatest friend is going iot° itns third printing, despite the fact that 11" self-respecting newspaper has bothered t° review the book. My contract stipulates that I will prli: ote the book to the best of my ability. Tn. really means that my publisher can orue' me to go anywhere, any time, and that aide only valid excuse for not going is a al certificate of death by an accredited CON- ner. Unfortunately, my publisher is als° famous for keeping costs down wrat he,ire publicity tours by writers are conce When I flew to Cleveland on his behalf, t'''" airline he booked me on showed snaPi shots instead of films. In fact I suspect th lad if he had been at the Last Supper he w°11 have tried to write it off. Last week my publisher had yet another brilliant idea. Because so few among thee fourth estate have reviewed the book, be asked me – ordered me, rather – to revie it myself. For the Spectator, to boot. 'le think of the company you'll be in Wa,,,s the way he put it. Poor fool. Little di 11 that when I write for the Spectatort. always tell the truth, and nothing but always

follows should make it Obvious. Leafing through this book with

disas the first thing that comes to mind is thalt such a collection of trivia was repreherksib when it first appeared in serious publicationf, such as the Spectator — to now cpub l iwsh between hard covers is as ridicuio say, a hooker lamenting the inventi?tj 43' the double bed. Who exactly does this Taki think he is? Anyone who n 'Finding a friend's wife desirable titsates,,, thing to do with disloyalty, morality, °t immorality for that matter' with a straigh face has to have the morals of Iago. I ant further convinced that Taki is a man t°,,bs avoided at all costs having, M Mr Tom Wcw-ed extremely erudite introduction, ,rel, about the manner used by the author 1'.,7,1 attention to himself. 'At the noisythe c parties in his house, notorious for kli forcing together of ill-suited people, Th8je has been known to silence the inevita,`"he

emigre British smoothie by bangin °

g e111 table and shouting.: "I want to talk, a Whoever pays for the wine does the talk- ing,", Having been unlucky enough to have first met Taki 46 years ago, I can vouch for the fact that such behaviour is typical and consistent. The man exalts at the sound of has own voice, is mesmerised by his own writing, and writes only about himself. In fact I know of people who have given up reading altogether rather than face his

meretricious journals and sesquipedelian prose.

Taki's reflections are symptomatic of an

egregious ego and a chip on his shoulder the size

of a California redwood. The

author's targets seem to be the beautiful People, the modern world, people in high rPlaces, successful couturiers, and royalty. 'It fact in he seems to hate just about everybody he knows or has ever heard of. Constantly belabouring imagined forms of Left chic can become awfully tiresome, so, again, who in heaven does this man think he is?

It is no surprise, therefore, to read in the hook that he's been thrown out of clubs he helped found, and has been disqualified froal competitions for behaviour that makes John McEnroe appear to possess plern- potential dignity. This collection of Takes best is sure to offend the discreet and aPpeal to the voyeuristic mongering, the _envious, and the social climbing. As for .5alo s former friends — I hear he prunes his !riends every five years — who are profiled 1,-..11 the book, the Aga Khan, Jackie Onassis, Christina Onassis, Roman Polanski, Hal- stonandAndy Warhol, to name a few, I Personally tried to reach them for com- ntear, but few would speak to me, let alone ive me something printable in such a inguls magazine as the Spectator. ()Which is the reason why I end this review a somewhat

Way these people positive note. If this is the

it s like ke ple treat respected journal- ists Myself, then maybe there's some

What Taki says, after all.