Gustav Temple spends an afternoon sipping fizz with bon vivant, cabaret performer, dapper chanteur and host of the Candlelight Club. Photos by Soulstealer Photography. When your parents named you Champagne Charlie, was this because they were fans of the music hall performer George Leybourne?I wouldn’t have thought they had any idea who George Leybourne was.… … Keep Reading
Mass spluttering at the breakfast table of gentlemen across the land results from announcement that Patum Peperium is no longer available. Shocking news came last week when the manufacturers of Patum Peperium: the Gentleman’s Relish announced they would be ceasing production. Patum Peperium has been gracing the hot buttered breakfast toast of gentlemen from Kolkata… … Keep Reading
The Tournament of Tomfoolery returns after seven years in the wilderness. After a hiatus of seven years, during which time many chaps and chapettes have forgotten how to toss a cucumber sandwich on a plate or ride a bicycle while holding a teacup and saucer, The Chap Olympiad is back on Saturday 18th July, from… … Keep Reading
Full details of this year’s saunter sans purpose, determined by the same principles of flannerie as ever, but with a new starting point. All photos by Soulstealer Photography. The 2026 Grand Flaneur Walk takes place on Sunday 17th May. This will be the sixth incarnation of The Chap’s saunter sans purpose during the Summer (last year… … Keep Reading
Gustav Temple takes a liquid journey around the world to see whether single malt whisky can be trusted from anywhere except Scotland. To some readers (and they may be right) is is already blasphemous even to suggest that whisky can come from anywhere except Scotland. But when one discovers that whisky is also made in… … Keep Reading
Gustav Temple assesses a new Irish Whiskey with rather ghoulish credentials. The word ‘sexton’ derives from the Mediaeval Latin word sacristanus – ‘custodian of sacred objects’. A sexton is ‘a person who looks after a church and churchyard, typically acting as bell-ringer and gravedigger’. The gravedigger in Hamlet calls himself a sexton, for example. The typical… … Keep Reading
Gustav Temple nosedives into rums that don’t come from where they used to come from, because they are either made or refined right here on these craggy shores. Over the last decade or so, rum has been slowly shaking off its old reputation as something to swill in discotheques mixed with Coca-Cola. But only recently… … Keep Reading
Chris Sullivan follows in the footsteps of James Brooke to discover the lost secrets of Sarawak on a truly incredible journey to Borneo. M first sight of Borneo was in a David Attenborough retrospective special. He visited the world’s third largest island in 1956, met tribes who seemed from another century and rescued a baby…
Gustav Temple braves vintage petrol fumes, spiky juniper bushes and an uphill country walk to sample the new Levin Down Gin from the Goodwood Estate. Scanning the Chichester railway car park for the promised ‘classic vehicle’ that would take us to Goodwood House, I didn’t spy any vintage Daimlers, Alvises or Bentleys. There was a…
The Chap meets the star of a new live comedy show opening at Edinburgh Fringe this August, who greets the public outside chain stores in his spare time. Visitors to such salubrious establishments as B&Q, Wilko, Wetherspoons, Waitrose and TK Maxx recently may have enjoyed a cordial greeting as they entered, from a chap dressed…
Gustav Temple meets Katie Thomas, founder and doyenne of vintage-style lingerie brand What Katie Did, champion of the vintage scene and the pioneer for a retrospective revolution in ladies undergarments. This interview first appeared in CHAP Spring 22. How did it all start for What Katie Did? In the mid 1990s, I started collecting pieces…
