Ephraim Hardcastle
WITH the King soon to receive the Honours of Scotland, pressure mounts on William to accept the Honours of Wales by attending an investiture ceremony. He is determined to avoid an elaborate ritual like his father’s Ruritanian affair in 1969. But he may need to make amends after ignoring Wales at the Coronation. Instead of wearing the Prince of Wales coronet he opted for the robes of the English Order of the Garter. It hasn’t gone down well in Wales.
CHARLES’S decision to take some time off after his Coronation is in marked contrast to his mother, who, immediately after her own, addressed the nation, hosted two banquets and two formal receptions. She also reviewed the service of thanksgiving, toured London, visited Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and attended a Commonwealth coronation lunch at the Guildhall. Charles was apparently too jaded to attend last week’s Royal Windsor Horse Show, his mother’s favourite.
SOME Coronation invitees are cashing in on their copy of the order of service on eBay for up to £900. Sensibly, they are not selling their invitations. They have recipients’ names on them and the Palace is watching carefully to see who might be tempted. Selling them is likely to get you on the Palace’s blacklist for future events.
PRINCESS Charlotte, pictured, is described in a Channel 5 documentary about the King’s grandchildren as a sister who lords it over brothers George and Louis. Royal commentator Daisy McAndrew notes: ‘Whether it’s to the big brother or to the little brother, sisters are often bossy and Charlotte is no exception.’ Princess Anne Mark II?
COMEDIC tour-de-force John Cleese, forced to tour to pay for a multi-millionpound divorce, mocks fellow Python Michael Palin’s travel books. ‘You mustn’t laugh at Michael’s books,’ he says. ‘They are boring. They are sponsored by the American Insomniacs Society. There are people who have fallen asleep after a few minutes of Pole To Pole who’d never been able to sleep for years!’ Michael has made more money from his travelogues than his entire Python career. Is John jealous?
RETIRED diplomat Stephen Day, who has died aged 85, blew the whistle on trade envoy Prince Andrew’s association with ‘dodgy fixers and politicians’. Day urged Whitehall to sack Andrew, claiming his activities were doing ‘serious damage to the Royal Family itself and Britain’s political, diplomatic and commercial interests’. Four months later in July 2011, Andrew resigned after a photograph was published of him walking with Jeffrey Epstein.
JACK Whitehall strays into the ‘Too Much Information’ territory by revealing girlfriend Roxy Horner uses a phone app called Flow to measure her menstrual cycle. ‘I wonder if you could link it up to your boyfriend’s phone?’ he asks. ‘I don’t want to know all the nitty gritty details but how amazing would it be... if it warned me which three days to shut the f*** up.’