Michael Rae and his wife Bambi, with Vesuvius in the background
Michael Clarkson Rae MBE, whose family founded the Neapolitan clothing store Gutteridge & Co, died on 7 March 2016 in Naples, the city where he was born. He was 79 years old.
The service of thanksgiving for his life was at the English Church, Christ Church, in Chiaia. It was a sad, grey day.
View from above Positano on the Amalfi Coast, Italy
Some places fill the mind with light, draw us like moths towards their flame … and as we arrive in our thousands the chaos from our wingbeats pushes outwards.
The Amalfi Coast, rippled turquoise, with emerald light and wilderness, is one such flame; and I feel like a vandal every time I visit by car.
The last of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels
This is a story about the dark places, and the fires, inside all of us. It’s not new, it’s as old as Naples, but it’s told with the energy of possibility and through the eyes of women.
The Story of the Lost Child is the last book in a series of four – the Neapolitan novels.
The Phraser 