The Rake October 2017 - Issue 54

When I’m asked why it is that the Swiss are so damnably good at making watches but so hopeless at communicating about them, I explain that it has to do with the fundamental difference between the Catholic and Protestant religions. O.K., close your eyes and imagine a Catholic church — take St. Peter’s or Notre-Dame or even Basilica di San Marco in Venice. Walk inside, what do you see? Some of the most magnificent art ever created: Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Titian. Listen to the music and hear some of the greatest compositions ever rendered by man. The incense, the choir, the pageantry and ceremony — it is breathtaking in its adulation of the incredible relationship between man and God. Now go inside a Protestant church, like St. Pierre’s in…

Whereas the popularity of, and esteem for, British style seems immortal, pride in being British is these days about as fashionable as a mullet. Deposits of patriotism — and by that I mean of the old sense, the king and country sort, the kind that saw men go over the top and “risk life and limb for Blighty”, as General Melchett would say (see Rake Incarnate, by Nick Scott, on page 216) — are a dirty secret to many people, and it is a shame. For one reason or another I have always been aware that I am a victor of a figurative lottery that comes with being born in the United Kingdom. Its rich culture and history has set the tone for so much of the modern world. A tiny…

Kwasi Kwarteng has been the Conservative Member of Parliament for Spelthorne since 2010. Born in London in 1975, Kwasi was educated at Eton College, where he was a King’s Scholar, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. in Classics and History. After a year as a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University, Kwasi returned to Cambridge to complete his Ph.D in History. Prior to entering parliament, he worked as a financial analyst and author. Since being elected, Kwasi has served on a number of select committees and, having served as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Leader of the House of Lords, Kwasi is currently PPS to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In addition to his political career, Kwasi is also a widely known historian. His first book, Ghosts…

November 30, 1895 was a hot day in Cuba. Arroyo Blanco, a small village in south central Cuba, was the scene of fighting between Spanish troops and rebel Cuban forces. It was Winston Churchill’s 21st birthday, and a birthday present was to come in the form of gunfire. “There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at with no result,” he would later say. How Churchill got to Cuba is an interesting story. Recently commissioned in the army, Winston was bored. In 1895 there was very little action in which a young officer could shine. Churchill, above all, wanted a reputation for bravery. Looking around the map, it seemed that only in Cuba was there any fighting taking place. The young cavalry officer used his influence to get himself attached…

In the mid 19th century, David Livingstone, God-fearing autodidact and missionary, lost his enthusiasm for efforts to convert the African people. He decided to discover the world, in the process leading Britain into a new era of discovery by a new breed of operator: the explorer. His obsession was focused on the whereabouts of the source of the Nile, which also has names such as John Hanning Speke and Richard Burton (not that Richard Burton) associated with it. The preoccupation with exploration and adventure of Victorian Britain has chiselled its way into the rest of the world’s opinion of Britons — for instance, that we produce the sort of people who will chop off their own fingers to get on with the job. Here’s looking at you, Sir Ranulph Fiennes. In…

Carving out a career in the film industry is no easy feat, and when taking into account the amount of work Douglas Booth does on the side, the ground he is covering is remarkable. Booth’s career began when he was 16, with a small part in Julian Fellowes’s From Time to Time. He describes his debut as “a baptism of fire” — as well he might, given that the cast included stellar performers such as Dame Maggie Smith, Timothy Spall and Hugh Bonneville. Booth is also an ambassador to the U.N. refugee agency, visiting war-torn and humanitarian crisis zones — “it sounds stupid, but it was life changing” — to try to do his bit. A charming, polite, fiendishly handsome and down-to-earth young man, occupying the limelight is not his cup…