Ephraim Hardcastle
ARCHBISHOP of Canterbury Justin Welby’s decision to stay on until 2026 rather than retire next year as expected has disappointed the flock of bishops jockeying to succeed him. Canterbury has become the job every mitre covets because of the likelihood of officiating at the coronation of Prince Charles. Should Welby hang on, he stands a good chance of presiding. Four of the first five 20th-century archbishops crowned a monarch. Of the seven that followed, only Geoffrey Fisher in 1953 has done the deed. Humility prevents the hopefuls from being too obvious about earning a footnote in royal history.
THERE are other roles for those who don’t get the top job. The Bishop of Durham and the Bishop of Bath and Wells walk either side of the sovereign throughout the coronation. Paul Butler of Durham and Michael Beasley of Bath and Wells must be discreetly poised. Canterbury usually crowns both king and consort but in 1902, in a bit of levelling up, the crowning of Queen Alexandra was delegated to William Maclagan, Archbishop of York.
POET Philip Larkin boasted to his friend AN Wilson that he declined invitations to travel from his home in Hull to London to visit fellow rhymester Stephen Spender, totting up for Wilson the cost of train fare, taxis and hotel accommodation. ‘With the money saved,’ Wilson writes in The Oldie, ‘he could buy a jazz record, a new Michael Innes novel, possibly a bottle of gin and some pornographic magazines, and have an evening in.’ Isn’t life grand?
KATE McCann’s sensational faint during
TalkTV’s Sunak-Truss debate gave some Westminster reporters a sense of deja vu.
The delightful Kate, pictured, also keeled over when addressing a Westminster leaving party last year. As on Tuesday night, the TalkTV political editor quickly recovered and was none the worse for her swoon. Bosses should swiftly dispatch a jumbo bouquet of flowers not least because popular Kate surely elevated the unwatched channel’s viewing figures from zero into at least double figures.
INSPIRED by the Queen’s disclosure that she longed to be an actress if the throne hadn’t beckoned, Nicky Haslam gets carried away comparing HM to Marilyn Monroe. ‘These two women,’ he gushes. ‘Born six weeks but worlds and time and cultures apart, both young, assured and vivacious at so early a milestone in their diverse futures, had, at those first coups d’oeil, equal promise of pleasure, security, endurance and a touching similarity in their shimmering white, diamonds and radiance.’ Is there a doctor in the house?
TRAVELLING by bus on his first trip to Scotland, Roy Orbison was duped into honouring the fictitious Stone of Killie McCrudden. Backing musician Danny Thompson got the driver to pull over at the first layby after crossing the border, telling Mojo magazine: ‘We go through this field and there’s a big boulder covered in lichen and moss… I’ve got Roy on his knees, kissing this rock – and he’s saying, “I promise to uphold the traditions of the country of Scotland.”’ To paraphrase Oscar, you’d require a heart of stone not to laugh.