Patten’s first lady

RECALLING his earliest memory, former Tory chairman Lord (Chris) Patten, 73, tells The Lady magazine: ‘I was sitting on a teacher’s knee at primary school, resting my head against her ample bosom while she read The Wind In The Willows to me.’ Was he enchanted, I wonder, by the riverside charms of Mole, Ratty, Badger and Mr Toad — or by memories of his voluptuous teacher?