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Waheed Alli’s generosity knows no bounds?
I ask because, with the revelation that the Labour lord has donated tens of thousands of pounds to seven cabinet ministers, my attention is drawn to an intriguing photograph of an eighth: Steve Reed, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
The photo, taken last December, three months after he took up his rural affairs role in opposition, shows Reed on a farm in Wiltshire, sporting a pair of wellies. Not, of course, the moulded PVC kind, but leather-lined, full-zip “Chasseur” boots, which cost a princely sum of £420.
They are “handcrafted by a single master shoemaker,” according to Le Chameau, the firm that makes them, one of whose directors is… Lord Alli.
Reed declines to comment, but a friend confirms that the wellies were indeed a gift from Alli. He says that at the time they cost £270, while the threshold for declarations on the Register of Members’ Interests is £300.
A practical gift for when you’re heading into the mud.
A photograph taken last December shows Steve Reed (right) on a farm in Wiltshire, sporting a pair of wellington boots.
The wellies in question are leather-lined, full-zip ‘Chasseur’ boots, and cost £420.
Baby number 2 is on the way for the happy Blandfords
An eventful year for the Duke of Marlborough, during which he split from his lovely second wife Edla, is ending with a bang.
Not only is the Duke, 68, enjoying the company of old friend Doune Murray, but I can reveal that his son George, the Marquess of Blandford, 32, and daughter-in-law Camilla, 37, will soon welcome a second child.
Camilla poses sweetly with her baby bump in a Railey Berry dress by Beulah. The couple have a four-year-old daughter, Lady Olympia.
If the impending arrival is a boy, he will end up inheriting Blenheim Palace, the family residence in Oxfordshire.
George, the Marquess of Blandford, and Camilla are soon to have a second child. Camilla appears in a Railey Berry dress by Beulah
(Very) modern manners
Finally, some good news for Prince Andrew: his favorite London nightclub, Tramp, where he reportedly first met a young woman named Virginia Roberts, is about to reopen.
And, even better, its new owner, Luca Maggiora, is ensuring that photography is almost completely banned.
Even where permitted inside the club, which has been carefully remodeled with the signs of the zodiac highlighted in silver leaf on the ceiling, members must remain discreet.
They should, says Maggiora, “use their phones as if they were at a dinner party: with a slight sense of embarrassment.”
As if that wasn’t enough to give Andrew’s Celery a special touch, Maggiora has removed the dance floor, explaining that people now prefer to “dance with their friends around their table.” No problem!
Modern Rees-Mogg on Substack
Jacob Rees-Mogg’s decision to embrace the modern digital world and launch a blog on self-publishing platform Substack appears to have raised questions within the former cabinet minister’s own family.
“Jacob on Substack – how modern,” his sister Annunziata Rees-Mogg dryly observes on social media.
When asked if she used pencil and paper to write down her thoughts, she replies, “Pen and parchment, I think.”
Jacob Rees-Mogg (pictured) has started a blog on Substack
Her sister Annunziata Rees-Mogg (pictured) has mocked her “modern” ways.
Marsden moves from Sandringham
What nerve! The man who helped make royal residences a source of income for “The Firm” abandons King Charles for a less salubrious castle.
Garry Marsden, director of corporate tourism at King’s Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, is to step down to become director of Inverness Castle Experience when it opens next year.
Before joining Sandringham, Garry was manager of the visitors’ company Balmoral, the monarch’s private estate in Aberdeenshire, which is also open to tourists.
Mitchell’s recurring nightmare
David Mitchell blames his wife, Only Connect host Victoria Coren Mitchell, for afflicting him with a new superstition.
“My wife told me it’s bad luck to leave new shoes on a table or a bed,” the comedian says.
“Now if I ever go on holiday and I’ve got new shoes, I leave my suitcase on the floor,” says Mitchell, who plays a quirky amateur detective in the new BBC drama Ludwig, and admits it’s a load of neuroses.
“I don’t like recurring numbers. In cricket, if you’re on 111 or any multiple of that, it’s supposed to be bad luck.
‘I used to watch a lot of cricket so that got into my head and now if I’m reading a book I don’t leave the bookmark on page 111.’
David Mitchell (left) blames his wife, Only Connect host Victoria Coren Mitchell (right), for afflicting him with a new superstition: putting new shows on a table or bed.
The Dunbar Girl and a mystery of love
Line of Duty star Adrian Dunbar was shocked when his daughter told him she had gotten engaged to a builder she met on dating app Bumble.
Singer and actress Madeleine Dunbar, 36, proposed to Callum Lazenby-Todd on London’s Southbank after less than a year of dating and while pregnant with his child.
Sadly, it seems their romance is no longer “a fantasy”, as her father’s character in the hit BBC police drama, Detective Superintendent Ted Hastings, would say.
Madeleine and Callum did not get married and have now unfollowed each other on social media. Madeleine, who used to post pictures of her boyfriend online prolifically, has not shared a single photo of him since January last year.
Alluding to a very personal struggle lately, Madeleine posted a recent video of herself running on a treadmill with a friend, writing in the caption: ‘It’s better to fall off the treadmill than fall off the car.
“It’s such a blessing to have a community of sober queens that inspire me,” she added, adding the hashtags: “sobriety,” “recovery” and “addict.”
Madeleine declines to comment.
Line of Duty star Adrian Dunbar (right) with his daughter Madeleine Dunbar (left)
Fearne’s finances in a happy place
Wellbeing is certainly translating into a healthy bank balance for former TV presenter Fearne Cotton.
The company he uses to channel profits from his Happy Place podcast and accompanying festival increased its assets to £1.2m last year.
Fearne Cotton (pictured) poses in Chiswick Gardens with her newly released novel, Scripted
The accounts show assets had risen from £431,000 in 2022.
The broadcaster, 43, reflected earlier this year on her decision to leave BBC Radio 1 in 2015 for the sake of her health, saying many things had changed “for the better” in the nine years since then.
Fearne, who has two children with her husband Jesse Wood, son of Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, set up the company in 2018. She recently published her first novel, Scripted.
“I am very grateful to have had the opportunity and to have thrown myself into writing my first novel, something that blew me away,” she said effusively.