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'Men get to be a mixture of the charming mannerisms of the women they have known.' F. Scott Fitzgerald
Icons July 2020
Alfonso von Hohenlohe: Prince of Clubs
Originally published in Issue 52 of The Rake, Nick Foulkes delves into the life of Prince Alfonso von Hohenlohe zu Langenburg, who was the founder of the Marbella Club and was amongst the most Rakish individuals to have ever graced our fair planet.
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Style Heroes: 1960s Alain Delon
French actor Alain Delon’s rebellious youth and disregard towards Hollywood speak volumes about his laissez-faire disposition – which was reflected, too, in how he dressed himself.
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Altitude Sickness: The Happy Valley Set
Originally featured in Issue 40 of The Rake, Nick Scott delves into the controversial lives (and deaths) of the Happy Valley set — a group of white, western expatriates who, between the 1920s and forties, turned a slice of Kenyan highlands into a hotbed of colonial debauchery.
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BLOOD BOND (THE SQUIRE OF NETTLEBED)
Peter Fleming was a law unto himself, according to his more regarded younger brother. The adventurer, spy and author deserves, then, to be remembered on his own terms.
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Live Like a King: Clark Gable
Originally featured in issue 2 of The Rake, Christian Barker expertly delves into the golden era’s ‘King of Hollywood’, ever-rakish actor Clark Gable whose effortlessly balanced elegance and machismo got him far.
Icons April 2020
LORD OF THE DANCE (GLORIOUS BASTERD)
If turning up early to a party is the best way to call the tunes, Christoph Waltz did not get the memo. It is only a decade since the actor, epicurean and acerbic philosopher won his big break at the age of 53, but he is now surveying Hollywood from the summit. And as NICK SCOTT finds, before the latest global pandemic struck, his worldview is unique.
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Breaking His Bonds: Pierce Brosnan
Originally featured by Tom Chamberlin in Issue 59 of The Rake, Pierce Brosnan says he wants a few more swings of the bat — to ‘shut them up’. What is there to do but stand back and watch?
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Lure of Duty: The Extraordinary Life of an Immortal Soldier
In the early stages of his military career, Adrian Carton de Wiart took hits in the ankle, hip, skull and ear, and he tore off his own fingers when a doctor refused to amputate them. We revisit Issue 40 of The Rake to discover it’s a good thing bodily trauma was so much to de Wiart’s taste, for his adventures had barely begun…
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Michelangelo and the yearning for tragedy
‘We lived in silence… He has only one way of expressing himself: his work.” So said Michelangelo Antonioni’s first wife, Letizia Balboni. It’s true, the Italian director was notorious for taking existential inquiry — and his own artistic purity — to another level. But what a legacy of film he left behind…
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Crowning Glory
Originally featured in Issue 2 of The Rake, Wei Koh expertly examines how Steve McQueen’s magnificent wardrobe stole the show in classic 1968 heist film, The Thomas Crown Affair.
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The Fire in His Belly
As originally examined in Issue 68 of The Rake, Billy Joel’s best songs are an intriguing, genre-defying mixture of melody, musicality and lyrical brimstone. What’s with the attitude? Is he a great-but-flawed entertainer, or forever just a Bronx Joe made good?
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Together Again, Kid
Originally featured in Issue 38 of The Rake, David Smiedt expertly examines how the death of the legendary Lauren Bacall in 2014 shone a new light on her marriage to Humphrey Bogart, evidence that love can conquer all, including the increasingly invasive spotlight of a celebrity couple.
