Pippa Middleton

Morning all. May I just say to start with that I'm afraid those of you looking for a post on the world's most famous bottom are going to have to look elsewhere. It is a very nice bottom but I'm afraid I can't think of too much to write about it save, perhaps, a list of mysoginistic adjectives. Instead I am going to write about the lady in question's new book.

Now before I start I should qualify this by saying I haven't actually read said tome although I have avidly consumed a lot of the press around it. Therefore all opinions are received, possibly untrue but hopefully funny.

For those of you who have been living on Jupiter for the last month or so, this is a book written by Miss Middleton about party planning. It has recipes for party food, party games and party themes. It also has plenty pictures of the author herself swathed in cashmere and looking incredibly wholesome while surrounded by impossibly cherubic, rosy-cheeked children (again, no shots from behind. Sorry. The neck lines are also high given she's usually bending over to engage with said sprogs). The consensus among reviewers generally revolves around the theme of Pippa peddling trite cliché's that every kid has known since the age of five. Instructions on pass the parcel seem to bear that out.

However I'm going to degend the book (and not just because I fancy the girl who wrote it and hope that she might wish to display her gratitude by a big "hug"). Firstly; if you view it not as an absolute guide but as a source of inspiration it suddenly makes a lot more sense. Like recipe books that contain old classics, sometimes you need a small cue to access what's kicking around in your memory already. When you think about it like that, it fills the brief nicely.

Secondly, the arguenment of it being common sense only really works if you grew up in Britain. I have just finished reading the biography of Shappi Khorsandi, an Iranian comedian, written about her childhood in Britain. A constant refrain throughout was her frustration that her mother never really 'got' British food or the British take on various common social functions. There was a particularly entertaining passage where she describes her frustration at trying to tell her mother what fish fingers were! So, as a quick guide to how to fit in and do things the British way it sounds perfect.

There are also some wonderful innuendos (possibly more apparent because of the author). My favourite is the description of a cake as, "not too rich and stays moist for ages!".

Sadly it looks like it's going to be a bit of a flop. I say sadly because, despite my defence, I'm not sure the book was a good idea. It seems to have been conceived as a way for a publisher to make money off of Pippa's fame rather than because there's any particular gap in the market. Even Pippa herself has expressed surprise that she has been asked to write it. The sales are probably not helped by the fact that Pippa has rather sensibly refused to do any interviews about it. I say sensibly because inevitably the interviewer will spend most of their tume trying to pry information from her about her sister and brother in law which is not only tacky but would equally inevitably lead to accusations being levelled at her of cashing in on her connections. Now of course she only got the job because of her new-found prominence. Let's accept that and move on.

I hope this book does well. I'd nothing else, it would be a really nice comeback to the (mainly female) critics who have written catty and bitchy articles about it.
JR