Ephraim Hardcastle
WHILE Charles relinquishes his organic Gloucestershire estate Home Farm he retains adjacent Highgrove House. This ensures he has half a dozen homes: Clarence House, Birkhall and abodes in Wales, Cornwall and Romania. He’ll also inherit Buck House, Windsor Castle, Sandringham and Balmoral. When the Duchy of Cornwall bought Highgrove for him in 1980, a spokesman said: ‘When you are 31, you want a place of your own.’ Four decades later HRH is spoiled for choice.
WAS Harry offensive about the Queen’s dresser Angela Kelly? If so, he should beware. HM is extremely loyal and protective of her close team. When Charles and Andrew reportedly worked together to oust her then private secretary Christopher Geidt she recommended his elevation to the peerage and installed him as a permanent Lord in Waiting. Much as she loves Harry, the whippersnapper would have been given short shrift if he had been discourteous to Angela.
WEDDING guests of David Beckham’s son Brooklyn and Nicola Peltz, pictured, daughter of billionaire Nelson Peltz, propose a spectacular honeymoon gift for the gilded couple, clubbing together for £500,000 flights into space on board the inaugural flight of Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic. Says one friend of the bridegroom: ‘Nicola’s dad has easy access to Richard and between his family and David and Victoria’s the cost of getting them on... is a drop in the ocean.’ But with a question mark over next year’s launch and frequent postponements since 2014, will Brooklyn and Nicola be celebrating their aluminium (tenth) wedding anniversary by the time Beardie achieves lift off?
COLONEL Sir Tom Moore, still ambling up and down for the NHS, urges parents to buy their daughters mechanical presents saying: ‘When my two girls were small, I didn’t buy them dolls. They both had very fine tool kits, and have been practical ever since.’ Indomitable Tom, well ahead of his time in the gender-neutral arena.
JE T’AIME actress Jane Birkin wanted to marry Cliff Richard, confiding to her diary in 1962: ‘Cliff to me is perfect, and I do love him. I would marry him like a shot if he asked me, but he wouldn’t...’ Fingers crossed that Jane’s volatile lover Serge Gainsbourg didn’t take a peek at her Peter Pan of Pop diary confessions.
LEON Brittan’s widow Diana once berated Spitting Image producer John Lloyd over her husband’s puppet: ‘It’s so unfair! You’ve given poor Leon five warts on his face, and he’s only got three!’ ‘The Home Secretary himself,’ Lloyd tells The Oldie, ‘pointed to various specific areas of his anatomy saying, “Look! One, two, three”.’
Maxine Peake and Miriam Margolyes won’t be receiving any festive cards this Yuletide from firebrand Maureen Lipman. Furious at her fellow thespians’ support for Palestine, pro-Israel Maureen says: ‘I won’t be going on tour with The Killing of Sister George with Maxine and Miriam, put it that way.’ Perish the thought!