What secret lies behind the circle of Truss?
WHAT talismanic hold does Liz Truss’s necklace contain? She was first seen wearing this slim gold chain with a gold circle suspended from it in 2019 after becoming International Trade Secretary, and now she always wears it. She wore it to Balmoral to meet the Queen on becoming Britain’s prime minister and at last week’s summit in Prague to bond with Macron. She wore it throughout the Tory Party Conference. The only time she doesn’t appear to have worn it was when she addressed mourners at the Queen’s funeral.
The necklace is thought to have been a gift from her husband, but nobody seems to know where it was bought, or indeed,
ONE of those endless surveys, this time from recycling body Wrap, deems that our underwear has an average lifespan of 2.6 years, which strikes me as a long time for a pair of knickers or a bra to be in use. It’s not like they are special items brought out for high days and holidays. I reckon a year for knickers and a bit longer for bras is a reasonable lifespan for such items. The survey adds that the typical adult has 15 pieces of underwear. You could find triple that number in my wardrobe.
how valuable it might be. Of course, jewellery is more about the emotional value than the cost of it, which is why that necklace is one of the few things about Liz Truss that I feel I can identify with. Having jewellery that we never take off is a practice that we share. And, make no mistake, that’s probably where any similarities end.
I have worn a small gold ring, a gift from my godmother, and a silver Navajo Native American bracelet, a gift from a man, since my teens. I don’t keep them permanently about me because I think they look so wonderful, nor for emotional reasons about the donor, but because I have become superstitious about them. Once I take off any jewellery, I stand a 75% chance of losing it. Which is why I always lose my most expensive, rarely worn pieces – taken off after a party or to do the washing-up – rather than the everyday stuff worn more frequently. Perhaps Liz regards the necklace as an amulet and doesn’t want to run the risk of losing it. Although after the past few weeks, she might consider it more jinx than genie.