Rupert Everett talks to Natalie Haynes

Be swept away by actor Rupert Everett’s first collection of short stories, which take readers from a chaotic and emotional funeral to Paris to an L.A. talent agency via a middle-aged Russian countess confronting sex and age in a Cotswold teashop. Everett speaks to author, comedian and classicist Natalie Haynes about The American No, discussing his inspirations and process, and diving into how the wealth of film and TV ideas he’s created over his career have fed into the collection.

Everett shot to fame with the film Another Country in 1984 and has been a hugely successful actor and writer for many years. His films include Napoleon, My Policeman, Adult Material, The Name of the Rose and Funny Woman. His stage work includes playing Oscar Wilde in David Hare’s The Judas Kiss, for which he won the WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actor in a Play and was nominated for an Olivier Award. His first memoir, Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins, was a Sunday Times bestseller and its sequel, Vanished Years, won the Sheridan Morley Prize for Biography. His film of Oscar Wilde’s last years, The Happy Prince, was released in 2018 to widespread acclaim.