Stuart Husband

1 month ago | therake.com | Stuart Husband

Some time in the late 1980s, I went to see Nina Simone at Ronnie Scott’s. It wasn’t without a certain amount of trepidation. Her residencies at the club had yielded numerous tales of erratic behaviour, including pugilistic audience interactions and random walk-offs, which served only to burnish her legend.

2 months ago | therake.com | Stuart Husband

When Travis Kelce joined Taylor Swift on stage at Wembley stadium last year — in full white-tie rig, no less — the resultant roar could be heard across most of north-west London’s postal districts.

Nov 19, 2024 | telegraph.co.uk | Stuart Husband

Tomoaki Hamatsu starring im 1998 reality TV show The Contestant Credit: Nippon TV When Tomoaki Hamatsu, an aspiring comedian from Fukushima, found himself at an audition at Japan’s Nippon TV in the late 1990s, he believed he was in the running for one of the first reality TV shows, in which he’d be filmed attempting to hitch-hike across Africa. Instead, on being selected by the producers, he was led to a bare Tokyo apartment, ordered to strip, and told that he would have to survive on the...

Oct 16, 2024 | therake.com | Stuart Husband

Not long ago, Georgia Fanshawe, a scion of the Guinness dynasty, was recalling her first trip to the Caribbean. “It was 1974, and we were on our way to Mustique,” she said. “We stayed overnight in Barbados at Oliver Messel’s house, Maddox. We had dinner by candlelight in his beautiful garden. There were monkeys running about in the branches above us. After dinner, Oliver suddenly emerged through the undergrowth.

Sep 20, 2024 | therake.com | Stuart Husband

In 1927, a most singular automobile glided out of the doors of a factory in Molsheim, in present-day Alsace. The Bugatti Royale was the ultimate in luxury conveyances, as envisioned by the celebrated Italian engineer and designer Ettore Bugatti. Reportedly inspired when Ettore was goaded by the remarks of an Englishwoman, who compared Bugattis unfavourably to Rolls-Royces, the Royale cut a suitably imposing figure.