After a brief hiatus, welcome to the Summer/Autumn 24 edition of Britain’s favourite gentleman’s quarterly.
After lying low for the summer of 2024, due to reasons mainly to do with technical webular matters since resolved, The Chap Magazine is back for the autumn with a spring in its step, vim in its tank and a splendid buttonhole in its lapel.
Our cover star and main interviewee is eighties crooner, jump jive and music hall aficionado Mr. Joe Jackson, currently on tour in Europe and the UK with his Two Rounds of Racket tour. Mr. Jackson shared his views on popular music, how to make the perfect dry martini and why smoking is more pleasant in Berlin than New York. Other well-dressed chaps encountered include Citoyenport, a Maltese dandy who parades about Valetta in full Regency costume.
Dandies of all stripes were evident en masse at this year’s Grand Flaneur Walk, and our photographer was there to capture the finest costumes and meet the most eccentric flaneurs and flaneuses. Grand Flanerie of a very different kind was experienced in the Southern Peloponnese of Greece, where we followed in the footsteps of Patrick Leigh Fermor to his clifftop eyrie in Kalamiti, to get a closer look at his famed drinks cabinet.
At the other end of the Greek Odyssey was a visit to the island of Spetses, where films from The Magus (1968) to Glass Onion (2024) were filmed, and where many different types of Metaxa brandy can be enjoyed. We explore this traditional Greek digestif and find new ways to consume it via the cocktail shaker. Another whistle-stop tour was made of the racetrack at Monaco, where our motoring writer was granted behind-the-scenes access to its hallowed hairpin bends.
Brandy was Keith Moon’s favourite tipple, and we pay a visit to the hotel in Chipping Norton which the hellraising Who drummer once owned, to sample the selection of cognacs behind the bar and hunt for the ghost of Keith in the room he always slept in. Another residence explored, albeit remotely, is James Bond creator Ian Fleming’s ramshackle home in Oracabessa Bay, Jamaica, in which he wrote all of the Bond novels in between snorkelling and entertaining guests such as Noel Coward and Anthony Eden.
Many readers will welcome the return of Am I Chap? in its purest form, after several iterations focused on specific types of hat. This issue features plain good old sartorial assessments that pull no punches in their frankness. Book reviews features tomes on Rowing Blazers, Oneupmanship and Gentleman: a Timeless Fashion, while our Wilde Wit competition allows you to try your hand at matching the master of epigrams Oscar Wilde. All this plus International Etiquette, Desert Boots, R.S. Surtees, Restaurant Reviews and much more.
CHAP Summer/Autumn 24 is available now.
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