The Rake

It’s Christmas time, and as the lyric suggests, there’s no need to be afraid. So shall we let in light and banish shade and think of the goodness we can find within our orbit: the innocence of children or grandchildren peeking up the fireplace in the

SEVEN CIRCLES OF MEL; PROG ROCKS; REV METER; OFFICER POLITICS; GOLDEN OLDIE; OUTFOXED; THE PRIME OF MAGGIE SMITH.■

There’s a diverting clip on YouTube from Judy Garland’s T.V. show, sometime in the early 1960s. A somewhat abstracted-looking Garland introduces “one of my most talented friends”, to reveal Mel Tormé in a snappy tux and frilly dress shirt, shimmying

I meet Ariyon Bakare at the bar of the Soho Hotel in central London on a cool October morning. It’s the week that marks his 30th year as an actor, a career in which he has performed alongside the likes of Jude Law and Warren Clarke. He’s had roles in

Leadership is much misunderstood. There are those who feel that when they are given power they can wield it as if a bludgeon, but the paradox of leadership is that leaders should be servants over whom they have authority. No one understands this bett

Deck the halls with drams of whisky, fa la la la la… yeah, you know the rest. Now that the weather is turning cold (or, if you’re in the U.K., replace ‘is turning’ with ‘has turned’), we find our tongue’s booze-buds longing for amber waves of ferment

I’ll begin, if I may, with a statement that might spark a public burning of issues of The Rake akin to the destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria, with Julius Caesar’s bronze-clad troops replaced by the dreadlocked saboteurs who, in lieu of a

There are certain things we will never see again: Leicester City winning the Prem. Silhouettes like a De Tomaso Pantera rolling off the production line. And Maggie Smith. Yes, Dench, Caine, Mirren and McKellen are still with us for now, but when the

I’m sitting down to write this in the house I’ve lived in for nearly 30 years — pretty much half of my life — on an island in the West Indies measuring only three miles by half a mile. The house is a white stucco villa sitting in a good-sized garden

We are forever being told that cars and ‘timepieces’ go together like a horse and carriage, and brands galore have jumped on that bandwagon in the hope of benefiting from the cross-pollination between automobiles and horology. But with an automotive

The phrase ‘Hollywood photographer’ feels more than a little tepid when it comes to Greg Williams. We’re talking here about a man who, behind the scenes on 150-plus movie sets, has trained his camera on stars including Joaquin Phoenix, Cate Blanchett

During a break from the photoshoot whose results you can see on these pages, Antonio Banderas has what bar-room philosophers call ‘a moment’. Pacing slowly, gazing up at the lighting rig in the Teatro del Soho CaixaBank in Málaga, unaware that anyone

PHOTOGRAPHER: MATTHEW EADES AT EIGHTEEN MANAGEMENT DIGITAL TECH: TOM GREEN HAIR STYLIST: BOBBY COLLIER AT LARRY KING GROOMING: RACHEL SINGER CLARK PHOTO ASSISTANTS: WILL CORRY & EZRA JOLLY RETOUCH: THE LAUNDRY ROOM■

MODEL: ORIOL ELCACHO, SIGHT MANAGEMENT GROOMING: GRACE HATCHER USING DAIMON BARBER FASHION ASSISTANT: ELENA GARCIA PRODUCTION: JJ MEDIA LIGHTING AND DIGITAL TECHNICIAN: LUKE JOHNSON PROPS: CHLOE RAFFERTY■

Being an artist is hard. Not that I would know from personal experience — in fact, if you’d asked me until fairly recently, I would have spoken purely in objective terms. I would have said that I was aware of how few artists scrape together a living,

When the editor of this magazine asked me to compile my favourite 10 watches of 2024, I approached the task with an equal measure of excitement and fear — not unlike that feeling you used to get at school when it was time for your exam results. That

Jet travel really ought to be filed under ‘miracles we take for granted’. What, after all, could be more romantic, more thrilling — more impossible-yet-doable — than being whisked through the air to far-flung destinations in a comfortable lounge-like

’Tis the season for round-ups. ‘Best trainers of 2024’… ‘Best face creams of the year’… I always find myself scrolling the lists not only for trainers but sports bras (it’s strangely hard to find supportive structures that I can breathe in), but it i

They say that when an establishment receives three Michelin stars, it shows that it’s worth travelling over land and sea to enjoy the degustatory pleasures therein. Diners were well within their rights to visit Tokyo just to see Jiro-san before his w

“If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.” Which fictional character most profoundly lives up to Emily Dickinson’s poignant reflection on suffering and tenderness? Nancy from Oliver Twist is a frontrunner. Getting on for two c

They say that what goes around comes around, so it was only a matter of time before the ‘sports utility vehicle’ returned to its roots as a properly rugged and practical offroader that you can gaily throw dogs, sprogs and logs into the back of before