In praise of: Pippa Middleton

Like most people I had never heard of party planner Pippa Middleton before her sister Kate married into the Windsors and we saw Pippa’s rear view as the wedding party entered the church. I’m sure that even devoutly heterosexual women would have gone “Phwoar”, as did every even faintly heterosexual male that I know.

Since then the media have gone mad. First they build you up, and then they knock you down. Most recently there was a chorus of derision aimed at her first book. This may well be justified – I haven’t seen the thing – but she responds with good humour in the Diary column of the Spectator’s Christmas issue:

I have been much teased for my book, Celebrate: A Year Of British Festivities For Families And Friends. Lots of journalists are saying that my advice is glaringly obvious. A spoof twitter account called @pippatips offers such pearls as: ‘Enjoy a glass of water by getting a clean glass and pouring in water from a tap or bottle.’ It’s all good fun, I know, and I realise that authors ought to take criticism on the chin. But in my defence, let me say this: Celebrate is meant to be a guide to party planning and, as such, it has to cover the basics. If I were to write a cookery book, for instance, I would be compelled to say that, to make an omelette, you have to break at least one egg. […] Or maybe I should write a sequel and call it Bottoms Up?

She sounds a good sort. The next post will be about New Zealand literature, I promise.