Pippa’s party primer praised and pilloried

LONDON — Paparazzi favourite Pippa Middleton is already a global celebrity. Now the 29-year-old sister of the future British queen is aiming to become a global brand.

The woman whose appearance at the spectacular 2011 wedding between Kate Middleton and Prince William caused as much of a sensation as the bride herself has written a recipe and party-planning book that will hit shelves this week.

Celebrate: A Year of British Festivities for Families and Friends has been praised and pilloried in equal measure ahead of its Thursday release, but perhaps predictably, Middleton’s introductory comments have dominated the headlines.

In them, she addresses her status as one of the world’s most photographed individuals, and tackles the topic many people most closely associate her with: her behind.

“It’s a bit startling to achieve global recognition (if that’s the right word) before the age of 30, on account of your sister, your brotherin-law and your bottom,” she says with a candour that won admirers in the royalty-obsessed British press.

Penguin imprint Michael Joseph, which is publishing the 416-page glossy hardcover in Britain, has declined to give details of the size of the agreement.

The widely reported, but unsourced, amount is $640,000, a sum that to most unpublished authors would be astronomic, although such advances are not unheard of.

Early reaction to Celebration has ranged f rom the snide to the supportive.

The Daily Mail’s Jan Moir could barely hide her skepticism: “Critics might wonder what Pippa Middleton really knows about entertaining — particularly as she looks like a girl who has spent her entire life being entertained.”

But Bryony Gordon takes up her defence in the Daily Telegraph, referring to “oddly comforting” recipes.