The Rake

Letter from the Editor

I was paid a rather neat compliment the other day. A style expert who moonlights as a popular left-wing commentator in Britain, whom we will call Bowen Thrones, publicly referred to as an “obscure clothing magazine for bored aristocrats”. There are certain pejorative phrases up with which I will not put, but in this instance, considering the authority behind the opinion, I feel I is open to all, and the articles are supposed to educate, entertain and reminisce (perhaps flatteringly) about the past. When Mr. Thrones indicates a conviction in the Croesian riches that come with Britain’s loftier families, I can only assume he has been sucked into the narrative with perhaps little hope of rescue. Long gone are the days of high-society silver-spoonery — too many dukes and marquises need to sell their souls just to fix their ancestral roofs — and if you were a really stylish nobleman then you extravagantly threw away any hereditary fortune you had in those mid-war epicurean years.

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