Ephraim Hardcastle
JOhn Le carre’s 24th novel, A Legacy of Spies, is published amid much fanfare next week. he says that, at 85, it’ll be ‘my last performance in public’. Some readers may be surprised by the re-appearance in A Legacy of Spies of a past, major Le carre character, spy Peter guillam. now elderly, he is living with a very young woman, catherine, whom he has ‘watched grow from infancy’. dwight garner, a new York critic and Le carre fan, says: ‘That guillam sleeps with her after being in loco parentis isn’t just unlikely but a bit too Woody Allen for my tastes.’
HONG Kong-born tycoon Sir David Tang sent out invitations to a farewell party next Monday at his Dorchester Hotel restaurant. He won’t be there, having died on Tuesday night aged 63. In recent months he’d invited celebrities, including Desert Island Discs presenter Kirsty Young, to his China Exchange salon in Soho. Tang hadn’t appeared on Ms Young’s much-prized-by-celebs show. Did she ever issue an invitation?
PRincE William and kate take Prince george to his first public day at school next Thursday, when the nipper is expected to perform a royal wave for the small Press team invited to record his arrival at Thomas’s school in Battersea. his father, pictured then, had to be reminded to do this by diana 32 years ago. On that occasion charles wore a double-breasted suit and tie for the chauffeur-driven ride to Jane Mynors’ nursery in Bayswater. A casually attired William is expected to drive kate and george on this occasion.
APROPOS the royals, a French court gives its verdict tomorrow on the publication of topless photographs of Kate in 2012. Next Wednesday is the 20th anniversary of Diana’s funeral. On Thursday images of Diana taking William to school, mentioned above, might be juxtaposed with ones of Kate and George. By next Friday, some may wonder if it’s a perfect day for the Duchess of Rothesay (as Camilla is known when in Scotland) to smash a bottle over the Prince of Wales – the new aircraft carrier berthed at Rosyth, not her husband.
WiLL Theresa May and Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe discuss abdications this week? not hers, but that of Emperor Akihito, 83, who has indicated that he wants to step down from the chrysanthemum throne due to ill-health. Japanese newspapers fret about this showing the country in a bad light while the 91-year-old Queen of England continues to serve. But Akihito wants to avoid the hysteria attending the death of his father, hirohito, in 1989. his illness was hardly reported, so his death led to an outpouring of grief, 48 days of mourning and a collapse in the economy.
DESPITE receiving a lukewarm response at the Edinburgh Festival, ex-Scots first minister Alex Salmond threatens to take his one-man show on a national tour. His producer, striking former SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, 46, claims they have received ‘a variety of inquiries and requests – watch this space’. Help ma boab (translated as ‘goodness me!’), as they’re wont to exclaim in Caledonia.