Women working at Harrods were like “lambs to the slaughter” during the years Mohamed Al Fayed was able to use his London department store to carry out abuse at will, one of his accusers has said.
Lindsay was one of five women who shared their story with BBC Breakfast, and discussed the night she says she was drugged and subjected to an attempted rape during a work trip to Paris.
Jen also spoke on the programme, opening up in public for the very first time about her ordeal 35 years on.
Their stories paint a common picture of how Fayed’s behaviour was enabled at Harrods. A growing number of accounts have emerged as part of a major BBC documentary investigation, Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods.
The five accusers urged other women with stories like theirs to come forward.
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Lindsay
Sexual assault, harassment, daily groping, trafficking, attempted rape, false imprisonment: that is what Lindsay says her reality was while working for Fayed as a personal assistant for five months in 1989-90.
She has told some of her story before but this morning shared harrowing new details about the night she believes she was drugged and attacked in Paris.
Lindsay recounted having dinner with Fayed, another colleague and three celebrities, when she received a “tap on the shoulder by security” and was taken away.
Lindsay assumed she and her colleague were going to accommodation at the Ritz, the exclusive Paris hotel which Fayed also owned.
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Instead, she was taken to a flat belonging to his son, Dodi.
“As you walked in, all the doors locked behind you. I said to the security guy ‘what’s that all about’.
“He said, ‘it’s just to keep you safe’ – but it was to make sure you couldn’t escape.
“It was the most terrifying night of my life.”
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Lindsay says she has no memory of returning from Paris and sustained significant injuries. She says she was later held in a Harrods office by a colleague under the orders of Fayed.
She managed to escape.
“Harrods will never leave me,” she added.
“The thoughts, the memories I have from those tragic episodes are inside me.”
Its current owners have apologised unreservedly and said his actions were that of “an individual who was intent on abusing his power”.
Harrods has also confirmed it is investigating whether any staff still at the store were involved in any of the allegations against Fayed, after the BBC revealed one woman claimed a manager still employed there failed to investigate when she said she had been sexually assaulted.
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Lindsay told the BBC that Harrods as a wider organisation needs to be held to account over a system which allowed Fayed to target women.
She added: “Who needs 25 PAs? They enabled this situation and left us like lambs to the slaughter.”
Jen
Jen, who has told her story publicly for the first time after waiving her anonymity, says she was subjected to a number of sexual assaults and attempted rape during five years working for Fayed.
“I have been living with this secret I’ve been deeply ashamed of for 35 years,” she said.
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“I haven’t told a soul.”
She spoke about how Fayed “still felt like a threat until the moment he died” and how his death in August 2023 “helped me to be able to come forward without fear of any consequence”.
Jen recently told her family about her experience, a conversation she described as “something I hoped I’d never have to do”.
The accusers who spoke out today were in agreement that Fayed’s modus operandi was to make his victims feel isolated.
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“He made you feel like you were the only person this was happening to,” Jen said.
She recounted how he asked to be called “papa” in private.
Fayed would tell her she should “look upon him as a father figure, that he would protect me and look after me”.
He provided a flat in Park Lane, central London, for her to stay in on the pretence that she wouldn’t have to travel home alone late at night.
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Jen later discovered it was fitted with secret cameras.
Katherine
Katherine’s story was heard for the first time in public on BBC Breakfast.
She was hired in 2005 via an outside agency and was initially only told she would be working for a “high net worth” individual.
Soon after meeting Fayed, her new job became a misery.
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“The first week or so was really humiliating. I had the Harrods attire of a black suit and he would call me into his office and tell me ‘this doesn’t doesn’t work’.
“He would rip the buttons off the front of my shirt and stuff money into my shirt pocket and tell me to buy more suits. I would come back the next day and he would repeat it and repeat it.”
That first week left Katherine “shattered”, and she realised she was in further harm’s way during a work trip to Paris.
“I realised I was in danger there because my door didn’t lock, I had to barricade it with a suitcase and a chair.
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“Ultimately he forced himself upon me in his office. I fought him off and I told him ‘I’m a PA and a PA only, and that’s what I do’.
“He said ‘then you should have worked in the Post Office’. The next day my desk was gone and I lost my job.”
Gemma
Gemma worked as a personal assistant for Fayed between 2007 and 2009.
She described how he would become “more frightening” during overseas trips, a pattern several of his accusers have attested to.
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Gemma says she was raped during one of those trips in Paris.
She said: “It’s something that’s probably never going to go away… ultimately it feels like Harrods is never going to disappear.”
Like the other women the BBC has spoken to, Gemma fears there may be many more victims of Fayed out there.
She said: “It’s shocking the amount of women who’ve probably been involved over those years.
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“It could be thousands, you just don’t know.
“In my time there must have been hundreds of women who were brought up to the offices and disappeared into meeting rooms and left crying.”
Gemma also spoke about how telling her story had been “helpful” for dealing with that trauma and praised the “amazing support” she has received from her co-accusers.
“We’re getting stronger together, day by day.”
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Nicole
A common theme among the stories of women who worked at Harrods is of not realising the danger they were exposed to and the scale of Fayed’s abuse.
Nicole – who was also sharing her story publicly for the first time – said: “I really did feel that people weren’t being honest and open but it was a difficult thing to broach.
“I didn’t know what was true and wasn’t true, there were lots of rumours, people talked.
“But for me, his reputation was ‘he’s a bit of a letch, he’s a bit handsy’ – there wasn’t the more serious accusations, because there’s absolutely no way I would have worked for him if that was the case.”
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Nicole, who worked for Fayed between 2005 and 2007, also spoke about the fear he instilled among those who worked underneath him: “There was a palpable anxiety, you could really feel this hum in the air…
“Everyday you had this anxiety… [and think] ‘how am I going to get through this day’.
“It was a battle to come through the day smiling.”
In a statement released after the BBC aired its documentary, Harrods said it is a very different place under its current ownership.
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The store has reached financial settlements with several accusers and says it is committed to agreeing new ones speedily.
Many women are choosing to pursue justice via an alternative legal process. One of the lawyers leading that effort is Dean Armstrong, who said his team has heard from up to 200 women.
He told BBC Breakfast that his legal team are working on assembling a “worldwide claim” centred on Harrods involving incidents in several countries.
Mr Armstrong said there was a “whole system to facilitate” Fayed’s abuse at the store, which gave him the power to threaten women who threatened to speak out.
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“I called him a monster last week,” the lawyer added. “I stand by that remark.”
All of the women who shared their stories with the BBC had one more thing in common: they urged others out there who may have been attacked at Harrods to come forward.
Jen assured victims who have not shared their experience that they would be listened to and supported, and urged them to speak to someone.
“We can’t hold him to account because he’s dead – but we can make sure that people know the truth about this man,” she added.
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“He was not a gregarious, charity-giving clown – he was a dangerous sexual predator.”
Marcellus Williams was executed by the state of Missouri on Tuesday, Sept. 24, despite concerns citing his potential innocence. Williams died by lethal injection shortly after 6 p.m. at a Missouri state prison in Bonne Terre, St. Francois County. He was 55 years old.
In the aftermath of his death, there has been widespread condemnation, especially since the execution was not supported by the prosecution nor the victim’s family.
Williams was convicted and sentenced to death in 2001 for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle, a social worker and well-known St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter, who was killed in her home.
The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office urged officials and courts to call off the execution over concerns regarding the trial’s jury selection (the vast majority of the jury was white) and potential racial bias—Williams was Black, while Gayle was white. Furthermore, DNA evidence did not tie Williams to the murder.
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“Even for those who disagree on the death penalty, when there is a shadow of a doubt of any defendant’s guilt, the irreversible punishment of execution should not be an option,” St. Louis County’s Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell said in a statement, according to the New York Times.
On Sept. 24, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution.Deacon Dave Billips, with the Office of Peace and Justice with the St. Louis Archdiocese, holds a sign as he protests the execution of Marcellus Williams on Sept. 24, 2024, outside the Carnahan Courthouse in St. Louis. Laurie Skrivan/St. Louis Post-Dispatch—AP
In the aftermath of Williams’ execution there has been an outcry from the public due to the doubts over his conviction, especially since it was reported in August that a new development showed that the knife used in the murder was believed to have been contaminated by DNA from a prosecutor and investigator working on the case.
Williams’ poetry and writings have been shared virally on social media. One document, which has been corroborated by publications such as Newsweek, shows Williams’ handwritten “final statement” before his death, which reads, “All Praise Be to Allah in Every Situation!!!”
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Many have also shared his poetry, which had been featured in multiple online journals and the Kansas City Star.
In the lead up to, and in the aftermath of Williams’ death, many advocates also have pointed to his story as not an isolated moment—but as indicative of a greater narrative of racial injustice in the criminal justice system.
If you’re enraged about Marcellus Williams (you absolutely should be), you need to make sure that you’re viewing this violent, racist injustice, not as an isolated incident, but as part of pattern of systemic violence and racism.
Various criminal justice advocates and politicians are also calling for the end of the death penalty, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Missouri Representative Cori Bush, and Derrick Johnson, CEO of the NAACP.
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“The state of Missouri and our nation’s legal system failed Marcellus Williams, and as long as we uphold the death penalty, we continue to perpetuate this depravity,” Bush said in a statement on Tuesday night after Williams’ execution.
I talk to a lot of leaders, in a bid to stay “ahead of the curve” and hear what’s on their minds. These meetings are not just about good ideas and premium biscuits 🍪. I also enjoy the unexpected ways that life comes full circle.
In 2022, I went with my Most Successful Friend (as her “plus one”) to a new event: Anthropy at the Eden Project in Cornwall. It was an invigorating experiment: a coming-together of leaders from business, charities, government and beyond, to work on a blueprint of positive changes for Britain after Covid. Think Davos, but in a biome. And without the tiered ticketing structure/crazy egos.
I was in at the start (such a trendsetter 😎). Many more people have since got involved — if you’re interested, the next, much bigger, Anthropy conference is in March 2025. This week, I finally met its founder, John O’Brien, to talk about leadership and connection. (No biscuits, though).
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Not at the Eden Project. Yet.
Read on for the many benefits of younger people joining boards (PSA: “young” in board terms is 40 something.) And in Office Therapy we advise someone feeling left out at work. We’ve all been there 😥.
Send your stars out to shine as Neds (or become one yourself) 🙋🏽♂️
Why not encourage your talented executives to become non-executive directors (Neds) in another organisation? That’s the most original staff retention and career development idea* I’ve heard in a long while. It comes from Warren Partners’ Sally Dunwoody**, a specialist headhunter for leaders in financial services companies.
Sally told me: “If you offer someone who has an executive role the chance to be a non-exec in an organisation that does not compete with what they are doing, it is a great development opportunity for them and you will keep them. You will retain them, they will be trained in a whole range of skills that will be very useful to your business, and you won’t be paying for that training — someone else is.”💡
Even better, Sally said: “[Neds] immediately have access to, say, six other people from the board they are serving on, plus the rest of the company they are working with, plus their resources. All that brings a ton of extras to your business and access to people and places who can coach, mentor and help.”
Generally, serving executives will only have the time to take on one Ned role. What sort of person, I asked Sally, is likely to be a candidate for a Ned role? “You’d be in a broad business role — probably starting to be a functional specialist, so you are probably in finance or marketing, business development or HR. Tech in particular is good — anything to do with tech or data — or a general manager.” For the new generation of Neds, you’re probably at the stage of “ExCo or ExCo minus one”.
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The biggest barrier to executives taking on a role elsewhere might not be an unsupportive boss, but age. According to the latest (2023) Spencer Stuart Board Index, the average age of Neds in the UK is 60.9 years: “Female Neds are slightly younger on average (59.3 years) than their male counterparts (62.5).” Boards are proving surprisingly stubborn about recruiting younger people — even those with relevant experience. The very youngest Neds are likely to be in their mid-40s.
It’s something that needs to change, especially now that many companies have four or five generations in the workplace (as discussed here last week). As Sally pointed out: “You need people who are younger round the board table as they can help shift the debate away from ‘this is how we have always done it’ and also they can help ‘get the customer in the board room’. Think about a payday loan business, for example — how many of their board members have ever been in the situation of needing that service?”
There are also plenty of programmes aimed at supporting people into board positions — Warren Partners, for example, has a Board Fellowship Programme that connects FTSE 250 companies with talented people from minority backgrounds. Women on Boards offers networking and training opportunities. And, *declaring an interest*, the FT Board Director Programme offers a diploma for aspiring Neds in the UK and Asia. (Tell me any others you have taken part in, or run, and we will mention them here.)
What can you do to improve your own chances of finding a non-executive position? Thinking several years ahead will help — whether you’re thinking of doing it alongside a corporate job, or as part of a transition to a portfolio career. Becoming a school governor, or a trustee of a charity, are good first steps. Sally’s advice: “Do something that speaks to you, so you lean into it properly and give it the energy and passion it deserves.”
**I first met Sally many years ago, on a campsite in France ⛺️. We reconnected recently, creating another “full circle” moment.
This week on the Working It podcast
Burnout is a huge issue, but very ill-defined — and there’s even more confusion about how to prevent and treat it. Into this void comes the expert voice of this week’s guest on the Working It podcast, Dr Audrey Tang. Audrey is a psychologist, coach and award-winning author. We recorded our talk earlier this month, live on stage at the FT Weekend Festival.
Listen in for tips on spotting early warning signs of burnout in yourself, and in colleagues, and learn how to keep yourself afloat when you are working in a dysfunctional organisation. Lots of great audience questions, too 🏆.
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Office Therapy
The problem: I recently found out by chance that I had not been invited to a select workplace dinner. When I heard, I felt like I was in the playground and nobody wanted to play with me. It was pure humiliation and later I was furious. I’m over it but I’m curious: why was my response physical — and how best to deal with “bruises” to our status🤕?
Isabel’s advice: I decided not to answer this myself because my reaction was visceral. It took me back to that moment when I realised my daughter was the only one in the friendship group not invited to the Alpha Girl’s birthday party. It sucks 🤬.
Here’s the rather more impartial (and more impressive) Ben Tye, CEO at digital transformation consultancy Gate One, and also a psychotherapist and executive coach:
“Ouch, I feel for you. Rejection hurts, and being excluded is a powerful form of othering that can bring up feelings of shame, impotent anger and rage.
“It’s telling that you describe an intense physical reaction and feeling like you were back in the playground with no one wanting to play with you. We all carry what’s called our ‘inner child’ within us. It’s a way of describing the younger parts of ourselves that can sometimes emerge during stressful or traumatic situations. In psychological terms, it’s a form of regression when an experience can suddenly take us back to feeling very young and vulnerable.
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“Be good to yourself, acknowledge the pain of being excluded and find a way to be kind to yourself on the day of the dinner. Maybe have one of your own with friends, family and people you love, who love you in return? Finally, if you experience this regularly, you might consider working with a psychodynamic coach or a psychotherapist to work through what is happening and address whatever is there.”
*Got a workplace problem for Office Therapy? Big, small — we tackle them all. Send to isabel.berwick@ft.com. We anonymise everything.
🚨 Office Therapy will be alternating here with the extremely popular “Dear Jonathan” careers advice column by Jonathan Black. Send your career dilemmas to dear.jonathan@ft.com.
Five top stories from the world of work
Uber’s next act: taking on Amazon. Newly profitable Uber is in the business of expansion — a great case study on corporate ambition from Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu and Camilla Hodgson. Is it really going to turn into the “operating system for your everyday life”?
The office is not the only solution: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sent the “return to office” debate into overdrive when he announced that he wanted workers back at their desks five days a week. Emma Jacobs asks how something as boring as the office ended up being such a hot topic.
Young women are starting to leave young men behind: Women are making strides in education and workplaces, but the more startling thing is that some young men are actively disengaged — and their prospects are going backwards. A worrying data trends piece from John Burn-Murdoch.
If you’ve ever wanted to look more “put together” in your clothing choices, or have felt you don’t really “get” fashion 🤷🏼♀️, please read “How I Lost (and Found) My Style at 67“, by Cathy Horyn in The Cut. What will make you feel instantly better is that Cathy is a fashion critic. If she has been uncertain about what to wear, what hope for the rest of us? It’s also a great example of positive ageing — embracing change and making the most of it. (Yes, this is a piece aimed at women — but there are many universal lessons.)
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This week’s giveaway
OK, I lied, not a giveaway . . . but a big NY-based future of work conference that’s free to join online. Charter’s Workplace Summit 2024 is on October 8. Register here and join Charter co-founders Kevin Delaney and Erin Grau and other top names on leadership and the future of work. Sessions that caught my eye include JPMorgan’s head of AI on how humans and AI can best work together.
A word from the Working It community . . .
The newsletter on the benefits of journaling about working life brought in interesting replies, including a couple of readers who questioned the ownership of such artefacts. If you are writing down who said what in meetings . . . does it belong to your employer as evidence if something goes bad 🤢? I will investigate (do send me your expert thoughts).
But my favourite email came from Trigvie Robbins-Jones, known as Trig, a director at PwC. He wrote: “I do something similar in cartoon form because work is too funny to be taken seriously”. I agree, but Trig actually draws his thoughts. And they are brilliant. He’s got a blog, or follow him on LinkedIn, where he posts professional-life-adjacent strips that will lighten your feed when it gets bloated with earnest posts from self-promoters and overcaffeinated conference attendees 😱.
THOUSANDS of borrowers who claim they are ‘mortgage prisoners’ have been ruled against by a high court judge.
The case was brought forward by former Northern Rock mortgage holders who claim TSB Bank charged them unfair interest rates on their “Whistletree” mortgages.
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Northern Rock mortgage holders have been dealt another blowCredit: Alamy
The borrowers claim they have been stuck paying a standard variable rate (SVR) 2.29% higher than TSB’s own rate, in some cases for up to eight years.
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The bank opposed the claims, and said that charging borrowers different rates is a basic feature of the mortgage market.
In the ruling, Judge Nicholas Thompsell said TSB has not breached the terms of the borrowers’ mortgage contracts.
The case, led by borrowers’ lawyer Tim Lord KC, focused on Northern Rock customers whose mortgages were transferred to TSB after the bank collapsed in 2008.
Lord argued that many customers were unable to switch to cheaper rates or move to another lender because stricter mortgage rules introduced in 2014 meant they couldn’t pass new affordability checks.
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He claimed this left them mortgage prisoners, with TSB “disproportionately profiting” from the situation.
But TSB, represented by Sonia Tolaney KC, said the bank offers different products to customers with varying risk profiles, and that this was “neither surprising nor unfair.”
In his 49-page ruling, Judge Thompsell agreed, stating that TSB was following the same SVR Northern Rock had previously applied.
He ruled that the rate, now called the ‘Whistletree SVR’, is simply a continuation of the original rate and that TSB was acting within the terms of the mortgage contracts.
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Following the ruling, a TSB spokesperson said: “We welcome the court’s decision today, which recognises that TSB acted in accordance with the terms of Whistletree mortgage contracts.”
TSB to close another 36 bank branches and axe 250 jobs – full list of locations affected
TSB added that more than two-thirds of affected customers had switched to a new mortgage product or settled their mortgages since 2016.
The borrowers lost this round but their legal team isn’t giving up.
Matthew Patching, a partner at law firm Harcus Parker, said: “Our clients are disappointed with the result, but are looking forward to progressing their claims to the next stage.”
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A further hearing is expected to take place in the case.
How is the aftermath of Northen Rock still being felt?
Mum of four and self-employed hairdresser has had to pay more than £91,000 extra on her mortgage since 2008
This means that her mortgage bill is £2,150 a month, which is up from £1,049 in August 2022, when she was still paying over the market rate at 6.75%.
Since the collapse of Northern Rock in 2008, which saw her loan sold to Heliodor Mortgages, part of Topaz Finance, she has been paying excessive amounts.
Sadly this is not uncommon, with Rebecca making up just one of 200,000 homeowners who had their mortgages sold to finance companies, which have continued to charge above market rates for the loans.
As a result, these people have become known as mortgage prisoners because the stricter lending restrictions mean they cannot pass affordability checks which would allow them to access lower rates.
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What is a mortgage prisoner?
A mortgage prisoner is a homeowner who is unable to switch to a better mortgage deal, even though they are keeping up to date on their payments.
Mortgage prisoners are often trapped with their existing mortgage, paying more money than they need to.
This is because when an introductory mortgage rate ends, the borrower typically moves on to the lender’s SVR, which is usually more expensive than the previous rate.
In 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) estimated that there were 47,000 mortgage prisoners in the UK.
What is the address for Legoland Windsor and how do I get there?
The much-loved resort is located in Windsor, just west of London.
Its full address is Winkfield Road, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 4AY.
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For those travelling by car, these are the best routes:
M3: exit at Junction 3
M25 Northbound (Clockwise): exit at Junction 13
M4: exit at Junction 6
Parking is not included in the ticket.
Legoland Windsor is well-connected by public transport, with trains taking half an hour from London Paddington to Windsor via Slough, or from London Waterloo in under an hour which goes direct to Windsor.
Legoland Windsor Factbox
Here’s everything you need to know about visiting Legoland Windsor in 2024:
Legoland Windsor will be officially open from March 15, 2024, to September 25, 2024
Located in Windsor, just west of London, the theme park’s full address is Winkfield Road, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 4AY
Trains take half an hour from London Paddington to Windsor via Slough
Trains from London Waterloo take around an hour and go directly to Windsor
Tickets should be booked in advance online
An online saver ticket costs £35 per adult, saving you £33 if you purchased the same ticket at the gate
Parking is not included in the ticket, and you’ll need to pay £8 for a ticket, although booking in advance will save you £1
Michael Gove in Downing Street on 12 June, 2017. Picture: Reuters/Hannah McKay
Former Conservative cabinet minister Michael Gove has been appointed editor of The Spectator following the purchase of the current affairs magazine by Sir Paul Marshall.
Fraser Nelson will leave the current affairs magazine after 15 years as editor, but will continue to write for it as an associate editor which he said was on the request of Gove.
Meanwhile former Spectator (1984-1990) and Telegraph editor Charles Moore will become non-executive chairman after the departure of Andrew Neil.
Moore has been given a specific remit to “safeguard the editorial independence and soul of the magazine during its expansion”.
Gove had previously been tipped as a potential editor of The Spectator when it was rumoured that his former employer Rupert Murdoch might be in the running to buy it.
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Before becoming an MP in 2004, Gove spent eight years at The Times as leader writer, comment editor, news editor, assistant editor and Saturday editor. He started his career as a trainee reporter for The Press and Journal in Aberdeen.
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He also contributed to The Spectator and later began writing for The Times again in 2016 after a failed bid to be Conservative leader. Gove stepped down as an MP this year after stints as justice secretary, environment secretary and levelling up secretary.
Part of his time in cabinet was served under Boris Johnson – himself a former editor of The Spectator between 1999 and 2005.
Gove will begin at The Spectator on 4 October, pending approval from the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) which vets new appointments for former cabinet ministers.
Fraser Nelson says Michael Gove is ‘clear successor’
“He’s a first-class journalist who took a detour into politics and not (as so often happens) the other way around. He was my news editor when I was a young reporter at the Times and even then he was writing Spectator cover stories and being tipped as a future editor. His hinterland, love of mischief, intellectual depth, energy, sense of humour and – most importantly – love of good writing make him perfect for the job.
“Having known him for so long, I know (for example) that he first declared his ambition to edit The Spectator in an Aberdeen classroom at the age of seven. Now, aged 57, he has made it. He might have taken a circuitous route but his experience, combined with his journalistic skills and the quality of the Spectator team around him, will make for quite a potent combination. Perhaps most importantly, he’s also from the north-east of Scotland.”
“The editor is backed or sacked but never second guessed, never steered,” he said, adding that Marshall “obviously likes us, he paid £100m for us – but I should be having no contact with him. In the same way I had no contact with the Barclays when they owned The Spectator. I think in 15 years they spoke to me about ten times.”
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Nelson added that editors should “actively ignore” suggestions from proprietors and that: “If you get sacked for it, you get sacked for it – but you hold the line. Famous last words.”
Fraser Nelson at a British Society of Magazine Editors event on 19 September 2024. Picture: David Cotter for BSME
Unherd editor-in-chief and OQS chief executive Freddie Sayers also became publisher of The Spectator and its sister art magazine Apollo in the deal, making him responsible for the magazine’s overall strategy.
Nelson described Sayers as a friend and said: “The success of our American and Australian editions – as well as our broadcasts, emails and first-class online commentary – has the basis of something that can be far bigger. That’s how Sir Paul sees it and Freddie will now be leading the work to make it happen: in our magazines, broadcasts and online.”
Old Queen Street Ventures has said it “will prioritise investing in journalism, talent and the latest technology, with the aim of building a strong future for The Spectator and supporting it to reach new audiences” especially in North America and the Anglosphere.
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Sayers said Nelson “leaves the magazine modernised, digitised and with more readers than ever before”.
Of Gove, Sayers added: “Alongside his political and journalistic nous, Michael brings a love of books, philosophy, art, opera — and a mischievous sense of humour. He is perfectly suited to the role, and I can’t wait to work together.”
Matthew d’Ancona, who edited The Spectator from 2006 to 2009, said Nelson had a “magnificent editorship” and called Gove an “inspired choice” to follow him.
Lord Moore said of his own appointment: “The Spectator thrives because of its free spirit and editorial independence.
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“Having been continuously associated with the paper for more than a fifth of its nearly 200-year history, I am honoured to have been asked to be its Chairman. I look forward to its future being even greater than its past.”
New Spectator editor Michael Gove has called journalism ‘the best job in the world’
Speaking in 2018, when he was still an MP, Gove said: “In making the switch from reporting to politics I left a profession that I loved and admired for a complex of reasons.
“But one of the reasons why I love and admire journalism is that politicians, rather like nappies, have to be changed often and generally for the same reason.
“But while politicians are dispensable in a democracy, one thing is indispensable and that is a free press.”
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A few years earlier he described being a journalist as “the best job in the world” because it “allows you to indulge your curiosity like nothing else.
“All of us want to know more about the world we live in. All of us have got passions, whether it’s sport, arts, politics – whatever it might be. And all of us are bursting to know more about the things that we care about.
“But so often in life you’re circumscribed from being able to ask those questions – sometimes you don’t have the access, sometimes it’s just plain rude… being able to ask those questions isn’t just the most fantastic fun. It also is a critical public service.”
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Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our “Letters Page” blog
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
When Dior designer Maria Grazia Chiuri told journalists before the show that the performance artist and archer SAGG Napoli would be shooting arrows along the catwalk, there was a flicker of concern. Would the front row have to duck for cover?
Fortunately, though Napoli opened the spring/summer 2025 show in dramatic fashion by taking to the catwalk in a one-shoulder leotard and gladiator-like skirt made of strips, accessorised with a huge bow and quiver of arrows, she fired at her target down a clear plastic tunnel along the middle of the catwalk.
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Of course, Dior owners LVMH were never going to let someone practise archery unfettered, not least when the front row included Brigitte Macron and Queen Sonja of Norway. Still, it made for an impressive spectacle, and enabled Dior to eke out a little more of the Olympic feelgood factor from the summer’s Paris games, for which LVMH were sponsors.
At Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri was inspired by the mythology of the Amazon woman . . .
. . . as well as an asymmetric 1951 day dress by founder Christian Dior and references to Wonder Woman
The Dior show on Tuesday marked the first major day of Paris Fashion Week, along with Kering-owned Saint Laurent in the evening. Both heritage houses were reflecting on womanhood. At Dior, Chiuri said she was inspired by “the mythology of the Amazon woman and how it’s part of our culture”, hence the archery, while at Saint Laurent, Anthony Vaccarello was exploring who the Saint Laurent woman is.
Pinned to the moodboard backstage at Dior were images of an asymmetric 1951 day dress by house founder Christian Dior called the Amazone, a vintage picture of Wonder Woman, a statue of Diana, the Roman goddess of hunting, and a graphic Dior Sport logo from 1962.
These different strands of inspiration were woven together in a collection that explored strength, the ways in which femininity is performed, and rethinking classic Dior looks to allow for more freedom and movement. Chiuri said: “The relationship with the body is the work of design.”
It was a largely monochromatic collection, with a sporty focus, featuring bomber jackets . . .
. . . and leotards with glittering fringes worn with gladiator-boot trainers
It was a largely monochromatic collection, with a sporty focus. One-shoulder tops appeared frequently, presumably in an allusion to the notion that Amazon warrior women cut one breast to make archery easier. Leotards, blazers and shirts came with a single shoulder strap or an exposed shoulder, while leotards with glittering fringes were worn with gladiator-boot trainers. Other utilitarian designs included wide black cargo pants, little bomber jackets with straps and buckles, and jogging bottoms with stripes down the side, but it was a shame not to see more of the elegance and structure with which Dior is synonymous.
There was more of an emphasis on tailoring this season at Saint Laurent, where Vaccarello said backstage that he had listened to an interview with Yves Saint Laurent himself from the early 2000s, in which the late founder said that the Saint Laurent woman is him. So Vacarello took this literally, reinterpreting the kinds of suits, trenchcoats, shirts and ties worn by Yves, for women. The backstage moodboard was covered in photos of Yves, including one in the same pose as a sketch by Andy Warhol, and even fabric samples of tie prints.
This wasn’t the slinky tuxedo tailoring synonymous with Saint Laurent, but more an early ’80s business look. Models walked around an open-air circular catwalk slicked with raindrops, wearing oversized jackets, many double-breasted, with wide-leg trousers in shades of charcoal, sand and beige, teamed with striped shirts and patterned ties.
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The ties had an endearingly retro feel to them, recalling everyone from Wall Street execs to less ambitious office workers, and were crying out to be accessorised with huge cordless 1980s phones. This was power dressing, yes, but giving off inner confidence rather than “greed is good” vibes. The styling was key to making this look feel fresh: cuffs were rolled up to reveal blingy bangles, and aviator-style glasses and visor sunglasses added some je ne sais quoi.
But behind the catwalk gloss and a front row that included Catherine Deneuve, Carla Bruni, Gwyneth Paltrow and Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, who plays Sylvie in Emily in Paris, the figures have been less convincing recently. Saint Laurent’s revenues were down 7 per cent on a comparable basis at €1.4bn in the first half of the year, part of an overall slowdown at parent company Kering. But this was a strong show and underlined that Saint Laurent has a coherence to its image that many brands can only dream of.
Vaccarello was keen to reflect the different facets of the Saint Laurent woman, naming each look after one of the brand’s muses, and the final section took an about-turn with “an explosion of crazy colours” such as tangerine, sunflower yellow and emerald green, as he referenced the house’s maximal designs from the early 1990s and questioned notions of taste. “I saw a Saint Laurent look in 1993 where at the end of the show the model had a green shirt with black lace,” Vaccarello said. “We think of the 1990s as Helmut Lang and Ann Demeulemeester and minimalism but he [Yves Saint Laurent] never gave up that overdressed woman.”
So short metallic brocade jackets in borderline garish shades of violet and peony pink with gold, and featuring jewelled buttons, were updated with tiered jacquard miniskirts, and models’ hands were jammed nonchalantly in their pockets. Very different from the suiting, but with a common thread of attitude, power and sex appeal that defines the house. It’s not that Vaccarello didn’t already understand who the Saint Laurent woman is, it’s more that he wanted to get to know her even better.
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