Ephraim Hardcastle
MIGHT Wiltshire Police’s controversial investigation into Sir Edward Heath’s sexual preferences have been influenced to any degree by local indignation that he’d acquired from the Church of England (for a knockdown price of £250,000) the freehold of Arundells, the imposing residence in the ground of Salisbury Cathedral? ‘While bobbies disliked providing round-the-clock protection for Sir Ted from a shed in the grounds, he lived like an aristocrat within the elegant manor house,’ says my local source. ‘At the time of his death in 2005, Arundells was worth £3million and it was later turned into a memorial to Heath.’
PRINCE Charles’s shirtmakers Turnbull & Asser have teamed up with David McKee, creator of Mr Benn, to produce pocket handkerchiefs featuring the cartoon character who loves picking new outfits and disappearing on an adventure. ‘A most appropriate gift for Charles, who has several rooms lined with uniforms, robes and various national dress outfits and loves nothing better than dressing up, as well as heading off on adventures,’ hints a cheeky Clarence House gossip.
THE Queen returns to London from Balmoral this week without her private secretary, Sir Christopher Geidt, who has hung up his quill. Despite suggestions that he’s leaving under a cloud – supposedly because he wasn’t admired by the heir to the throne – HM gave Sir Christopher lunch and made him a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order. She’ll also arrange for a peerage to add to his two knighthoods.
BOOTED off Strictly Come Dancing this week, Radio 4 broadcaster Rev Richard Coles, 55, pictured, might be on his way to national treasure status thanks to his TV exposure. Explaining his bachelor status, he reveals disarmingly in an interview: ‘I played my mother Tom Robinson’s song (Sing If You’re) Glad To Be Gay two or three times and she said, “Darling, are you trying to tell me something?” ’
HAVING landed a string of Establishment jobs as a consolation after losing his Tory seat in 1992, Chris Patten, who became the last governor of Hong Kong and then an EU commissioner, tells the Cheltenham Literary Festival that the Brexit vote was the ‘single most calamitous example of national self-harm in my lifetime’. As an EU pensioner, Patten – for some a calamitous example of self-importance – is obliged to say this, but he might have found a more nuanced way of getting his message across.
PICTURED in a beekeeper-style hat to protect her 77-year-old skin from the California sun, former screen sex goddess Raquel Welch has explained: ‘We can all agree that ageing is challenging, but believe me, it can be even more so for a fading sex symbol.’ Divorced four times – she parted from her last husband, restaurateur Richard Palmer, in 2008 – Ms Welch says she won’t remarry, remarking rather poignantly: ‘Frankly, there is a diminishing group of eligible people at my age.’