Luke Durbin from Hollesley, near Woodbridge went missing aged just 19 after a night out with friends in Ipswich. After after being unable to afford to pay for a taxi home at about 4am, this grocery store worker was last seen on CCTV wandering around the town centre in the early hours of the 12th May 2006.
Durbin had left his new motorbike and personal belongings, including his mobile telephone, at his friend’s house and no trace of him has ever been found since. A silver or white Volvo 440 – possibly registration M206 LYE (which was “either registered to a false name and address or on false plates” according to the ‘Missing The Missing’ YouTube channel) – seen also on camera in the close vicinity of Durbin’s last location at the time of his last sighting has never been eliminated from enquiries. Suffolk Police have stated that they “sadly believe Luke was unlawfully killed,” and though a £20,000 reward was offered and multiple arrests made, no progress has been made in solving this disappearance.
In subsequent years, Luke Durbin’s mother, Nicki Durbin, has tirelessly continued her efforts to find her son and taken a job working on the Missing People helpline to help others in similar situations. She also operates a Twitter account and an email address [email protected] highlighting the case and keeps alive the hope of one day solving what the Ipswich Star terms: “One of Suffolk’s most enduring mysteries.”
Coachbuilt 2018 Range Rover ‘Adventum Coupé’ for sale for an eye-watering sum; it comes with two umbrellas with handles made of the same leather as the interior
Niels van Roij is a Dutchman who has set about reviving the craft of the coachbuilders of the early 20th century. Aside from having the work of his award-winning eponymous automative studio exhibited at the London Transport Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum, this autodidact car adapter has developed shooting brakes based on the Tesla Model S and the Range Rover.
Now, the very first example of this talented designer’s Land Rover adaptations – named the Adventum Coupé – has become available for sale. The vehicle in question, converted from a 2018 5.0-litre supercharged V8 Range Rover to a “two door model based on the world’s best SUV,” is priced at £256,300 ($318,000, €290,400 or درهم1.2 million) including VAT and available through the Classic Youngtimers Consultancy based in Uden in Noord-Brabant, Netherlands. It has covered about 8,000 miles.
Presented with its hand-beaten aluminum body panels in Arctic white with a Nappa red leather interior and black piano lacquer dashboard, the car features flooring of handmade teak from the front seats to the trunk. Two hand-stitched black and red umbrellas can be found in the boot complete with handles made of the same leather as the interior.
Speaking generally of the Adventum Coupé range he intends to craft – the build run of which will be limited to 100 vehicles only – van Roji commented:
“The bespoke Adventum Coupé is a real design statement with a distinctive, custom-made aluminum bodywork, built by coachbuilder Bas van Roomen. Unique personal ideas can also be added to the hand-produced exterior, such as subtle ventilation openings in the fender and the bonnet. The interior can be equipped with the finest materials. In a co-design process with the future owner, we shape exterior and interior. We process the finest materials, such as tweed, teak and lambswool. We make it so personal that even the favourite pinstripe from the owner’s suit can be incorporated into the interior.”
“If desired, each Adventum Coupé can have striking materials and colour schemes for both interior and exterior: Everything is possible: from unique fuel filler caps, duotone exterior paints, highly polished wood on the dashboard, personalised tread plates to colour-matched leather in chic patterns. Even refined embroidery is a possibility.”
“Because: form follows function. This new look visually extends the car. The shutlines of the door actively contribute to a more elegant side view. The interior has also been largely redesigned due to the major changes to the exterior.”
Whilst we’d never urge anyone to buy a Range Rover in white (unless you were planning to use it in a country such as Kuwait), here is a future classic and a car that’ll most certainly stand out from the many other Rangies parked outside the pubs of the Cotswolds on a Sunday afternoon.
The boozy bird the Duchess of Sussex and the newly formed The Independent Group have something in common; this “TIG moment” lover should become their leader
The former Meghan Markle – a bizarre woman who ludicrously likes to create “spaces to share” and “breeding grounds for ideas and excitement” – once had a blog called ‘The Tig.’ It was supposedly about matters “lifestyle” and on it she created “a hub for the discerning palate – those with a hunger for food, travel, fashion [and] beauty.”
On this oracle of wisdom the busybody ‘Murky Mucky’ shared information that the world simply shouldn’t be without. On the now defunct site’s ‘About’ section, she bizarrely stated:
“Several years ago I had a sip of wine called Tignanello (pronounced “teen-ya-nello“). But let’s be real – in the states most people said “tig-na-nello“…or just plain old “Tig.” The Italiano of it all gets a little tricky, so the bartender kept it simple; it was a glass of “Tig.“So there I am, with very minimal wine knowledge and I take a sip of this wine. It wasn’t just red or white – suddenly I understood what people meant by the body, legs, structure of wine. It was an ah-ha moment at its finest. For me, it became a “Tig” moment – a moment of getting it.”
“From that point on, any new awareness, any new discovery or “ohhhhh, I get it!” moment was a “Tig” moment. At New York Fashion Week understanding that clothes aren’t just pieces of fabric, but that they can be art. So Tig. Traveling off the beaten track and hand diving for sea urchin in Jamaica – understanding that travel is adventure and discovery, culture and surprise. A Tig moment, indeed. And the same could be said for my love of cooking & dining, for cultivating friendships that inspire you, for the idea of “beauty” and what that means to us. An understanding that comes with living your life to the fullest so that it bursts at the seams. An unbridled joy. An insatiable curiosity. That’s what Tig means to me.”
We won’t bore you with the rest of this right royal pest’s drivel but yesterday, in Westminster, seven now ex-Labour MPs quit their party. They formed a group called ‘The Independent Group’ or more simply ‘TIG.’ Perhaps it might be appropriate that their fellow ‘Tigger’ The Duchess of Sussex become their leader.
The Independent Group announced their creation in Westminster yesterday; they came across as a bunch of attention seekers.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, in New York, ‘The Modern Day Mrs Simpson’ couldn’t help but don the look of an extra from ‘Last Of The Summer Wine’ in wearing a flat cap. Here indeed was a right royal embarrassment.
Clangers overheard and snippets spotted by readers of ‘The Steeple Times’
Mobile Arabs
An Arab sat outside a shisha café on Brompton Road told her friend: “I lost my phone in Harrods today but I went back and they’d found it. Thank God it was Harrods. They’d have been so racist anywhere else but Harrods, they love us. In this country, it’s whites first and us second but in Harrods, it’s the other way round.”
Lunching (Un)like Liz
At Granger in Chelsea, a Hill House mother chatted with another of her number. She stated: “I go to lunch at 4.30pm as I don’t do breakfast or dinner. You know why: I don’t want to end up looking like Liz Hurley, do I?”
Standard Death
A pair of Russian women lunched at Chiltern Firehouse. One announced: “I went to a really f***ing budget wedding recently… One thing that is so important is alcohol but these people served Russian Standard. Social death. It’s like doing something in Shoreditch.”
Priestly Observations
Two Brompton Oratory priests lunching at Colbert on Sloane Square chatted with a fellow diner about the locality. “It’s changed very much lately,” said one. The other added: “I preferred it when there were more ladies like Miss Marple.”
Submit comments you hear to [email protected]. We publish amusing and ridiculous chatter we receive and sometimes we change names and locations to protect the identities of the vain and the vacuous.
Ex-President Josip Broz Tito 1964 Fiat 500 Jolly by Ghia to be sold at auction in London
Josip Broz Tito liked cars. It appears he didn’t care if they were little or large and someone without the means to purchase his £2.5 million ($3.1 million, €2.9 million or درهم11.4 million) 1971 Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman Landaulet – featured on these pages in April – could acquire a 1964 Fiat 500 Jolly by Ghia owned by him for the lower, yet still somewhat punchy, sum of £70,000 to £100,000 ($90,500 to $129,300, €83,200 to €118,900 or درهم332,400 to درهم474,800) at an auction in London in May.
Josip Broz Tito, born Josip Broz (1892 – 1980), President of Yugoslavia (1953 – 1980)
To be offered by Coys of Kensington at their forthcoming Royal Horticultural Halls sale in Westminster on 18th May, the ‘Economical’ converted Fiat 500 was owned from new by the 1st President of Yugoslavia. He was pictured using it on numerous occasions.
Subsequently part of the Classic Automobile Museum collection in Belgrade for a number of years, the white runaround – chassis number 1100271507 – has covered just 12,500 miles and is described as “driving like new”. It comes with a certificate of authenticity and would make the perfect accessory for the owner of a super yacht, seaside estate or golf course.
1948 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport cabriolet to be auctioned; it attracted the attentions of Marlene Dietrich and has a Hermés interior
In October 1949, the chameleon-like actress and singer Marlene Dietrich (1901 – 1992) was photographed “descending elegantly” from a custom-built T26 Talbot Grand Sport by coachbuilders Franay at the Paris Salon. That car subsequently won the 1er Grand Prix d’Honneur at the Concours d’Enghien in June 1950 and is now due to be sold at auction in May.
The “outrageously exclusive” short-wheelbase Grand Sport, chassis 110121, was first presented in white and came with a luxurious red leather interior and fitted luggage by Hermés. It was described as “an automobile destined for the serious sportsman and chic Parisian society in equal measure”.
Marlene Dietrich “descending elegantly from the car, the crowd surrounding it completely mesmerized – a very rare instance of the occupant upstaging a Grand Sport” at the Paris Salon in October 1949
As it is presented today – The 1948 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport cabriolet by Franay
Subsequently subject to another makeover by Franay whilst still owned by Talbot in the winter of 1950, the 4.5-litre car was presented at the Brussels Auto Show in January 1951 in black with a new, simpler grille design. After appearing at the Concours de la Grande Cascade that summer, the vehicle passed into the ownership of an unknown “manufacturer of hard candies” and was given yet another grille – this time in the style Pininfarina Ferrari 212 Inter.
Returning to the Concours d’Enghien in June 1952 and then having its final appearance on the Franay stand at the 1953 Paris Salon, the Grand Sport was sold to a butcher from Versailles. It was bought for just $800 (the equivalent of £5,100, $6,600, €6,100 or درهم24,200 today) in 1960 by Jim Bandy, an American military officer stationed in France, and then taken by him to Baltimore, Maryland in 1963. Sold on several times and subject to an engine swap with a Talbot Grand Sport Saoutchik coupé, chassis 110101, the car was partially dismantled in the 1970s and it was not until 1992 that its restoration was to properly begin under the guidance of the highly regarded Austrian restorer Egon Zweimüller.
Completed in 2010, the restored “one-off cabriolet” is now described as “compelling and unprecedented”. It again has a Hermés interior and luggage – this time in black – and has been verified by the Talbot-Lago and Saoutchik authority Peter M. Larsen.
Offered with an unsurprisingly punchy estimate of £1 million to £1.3 million ($1.3 million to $1.6 million, €1.2 million to €1.5 million or درهم4.8 million to درهم6 million) by RM Sotheby’s, the 1948 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport cabriolet by Franay will be sold at Villa Erba on Lake Como on the 27th May.
This red-headed South Africa born design dragon is most famous for her use of taupe. Hoppen views white to be an “essential neutral” and loved visiting show flats as a child. She’s dated footballer Sol Campbell and hairdresser Nicky Clarke and claims Victoria Beckham as her “BFF”. She is “proud of being British today” and once attempted to text her fellow Dragons’ Den dragon Duncan Bannatyne and “got him confused with Duncan from Blue”.
This Scottish producer’s life was immortalised in the 2013 crowdfunded film, The Last Impresario. Jewish and educated at the Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz, White moved from being a Wall Street runner in the 1950s to the pinnacles of showbusiness in the 1960s and 1970s. Known for working on projects as diverse as Monty Python, The Rocky Horror Show, Enigma and White Mischief, this legendary playboy “can’t think about one good thing about growing old” and considers beautiful women to be “like living pictures”. White’s “Icarus-like downfall” into drugs and excess are well documented but, as he’d no doubt say himself, “the party must go on”.
