Norman Scott on Thorpe
Norman Scott’s affair with Jeremy Thorpe led to one of the biggest political scandals of the 20th century. In the mid-1970s, Thorpe, the leader of the Liberal Party, was sensationally accused of trying to have Scott shot dead, on Exmoor, to stop him exposing the relationship they’d had several years earlier. Although Thorpe was acquitted, his reputation never recovered; Scott, meanwhile, was vilified and became a laughing stock, says Kate Mossman in The New Statesman. Yet his view of his one-time lover isn’t wholly negative. He was, he admits, “wowed” by Thorpe. “There are no statesmen today. At least – God, am I really going to say this? – Thorpe was a statesman, you know?” And Thorpe opened up a new world to him: he says he slept with Francis Bacon, and had breakfast with a young David Bowie. “I don’t honestly think I ever loved Jeremy,” he reflects. “I was in his thrall. It’s so awful to say that about someone who’s done what he did to me, but when you were with him, he was enormous fun.”
Sam Ryder is on a high, says Zoe Williams in The Guardian. He’s still basking in the glow of his Eurovision performance last month, where his song Space Man came in second place – the UK’s best showing in 20 years. Now, he has a European tour and a summer full of festivals lined up. Yet his was a long road to success. Growing up in Essex, he decided to become a singer aged 11. By 19, he was in a band, but it wasn’t very successful. “I’ve been playing music for a long time, mostly to empty rooms,” he says. “If we played to 30 people, we thought we were kings of the world.” After the band split up in 2010, he started to play weddings. “I’ve played loads of them,” he says. “It was amazing – and definitely not cool. If you’re trying to form your own music career, it’s almost got a stigma. ‘You’re a wedding singer now. You’ll never get out of it.’” But of course he did, and in the meantime, the experience taught him a useful lesson. “I remember the first wedding I played, on stage, with my eyes closed, thinking: ‘Yeah, I really nailed that little section. They’ll like that.’ Opening my eyes and no one cared. They were there with their friends and family, having the best day of their lives. I realised, my joy’s meant to come from within, not from an external source. That, for me, changed my entire life, changed my path and where I get my happiness from. It’s not from a full room.”