

Words: Harry Shukman
When AA Gill visited Monaco he said it was a “mangrove swamp of avarice”, a greasy hellscape devoid of “taste and a sense of the collective good”. It was “deeply depressing, so comprehensively devoid of any amusement, expectation or glamour, so utterly tacky, witless, empty and sad”. Psychological research tells us that geography affects personality, so is it any wonder that the House of Grimaldi, the family that rules the naff microstate of Monaco, is said to be cursed?