Londoner's Diary: Cara Delevigne's novel is talk of Sotheby's fashion bash

In today's Diary: The fash-pack can't wait for Cara Delevingne's book | Lord Winston's son tackles David Miliband at the airport | Julian Assange begs for Twitter verification | Will Dame Vera Lynn get her centenary celebrations? | Kara Rose Marshall, model of bad behaviour 
Tania Fares and Sarah Mower, with Dame Natalie Massenet centre, at the launch of their new book London Uprising. Image: Darren Gerrish
Darren Gerrish
15 March 2017

Somewhere in Sotheby’s last night was the next editor of Vogue — if only The Londoner could locate said person. Instead we enquired about Cara Delevingne’s forthcoming novel Mirror Mirror, announced yesterday.

Dashing tailor Patrick Grant, author of coffee table tome Original Man, said there was no need to be snippy about Cara signing up best-selling novelist Rowan Coleman as co-writer for the teen thriller. “It takes a long time to write a book,” said Patrick, joking that he’d even written some of his own.

“Zoella has 30,000 people standing outside Waterstones every time she does a book, that’s what publishing’s about,” he said. “Cara’s funny and she’s got a good brain, so even if she doesn’t write all of it she’ll make sure that it’s actually good.”

Also at the auction house to launch fashion book London Uprising, by Tania Fares and Sarah Mower, was super-snapper Mario Testino, who chatted with Samantha Cameron. British Vogue deputy editor Emily Sheffield wasn’t falling for any of The Londoner’s japes about who might end up in the editor’s chair, while US Vogue’s Hamish Bowles insisted that he wasn’t in London to apply for the job. Bowles did say that fashion makes for good stories, though. “I think it’s fun to write about the real fashion world,” he said. “But it doesn’t need much fictionalising.”

The coolest review for Cara’s new project came from Dame Natalie Massenet. “Any novel is interesting and I love Cara,” she said. Would she get a copy? Perhaps. “I have a stack of books by my bed that I have to read.”

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Some fathers do ’ave ’em. Robert Winston recalls in Politics Home how his son Ben, exec producer of James Corden’s The Late Late Show, said David Miliband let down the Labour Party. “He said, ‘If I saw him now, I’d give him a piece of my mind’. And I said, ‘I bet you wouldn’t have the nerve’. Three days later I got a text: ‘I’m sitting in JFK airport and I’ve met Miliband and told him what I think of him’. He responded: ‘Oh, you must be Robert’s son’.”

Kate and Marianne have Eiffel power

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The Duchess of Cambridge will visit Paris on Friday, and tomorrow Marianne Faithfull will receive the Légion d’Honneur at the Elysée Palace.

Remarkably, Faithfull is still going strong professionally, and has been doing a concert tour of France this year.

The women have much in common: both had the unusual experience in their youth of being plucked from middle-class obscurity by a famous man and thrust into the spotlight of worldwide fame almost overnight.

Mind you, looking at Kate’s trim frame, it’s probably safe to say it’s been a while since she’s been anywhere near a Mars bar.

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Quote of the Day: 'I was accused of gutter journalism for writing down what a politician said to me’

Rachel Sylvester, Times journalist and winner of Scoop of the Year at last night’s Press Awards, recalls her fateful “I’m a mother” interview with Tory leader wannabe Andrea Leadsom.

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Will Vera Lynn get her centenary celebrations?

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Forces sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn turns 100 on Monday. The Londoner assumed a telegram from Her Majesty must be on the way, and checked with Buckingham Palace — as centenarians must now be nominated for such correspondence, hopefully someone remembered to get Dame Vera on the list in time. If not, at least there’ll be a marvellous party. Cahoots, the 1940s-themed bar off Carnaby Street, will toast the occasion with tribute acts, cocktails served in Vera Lynn busts and a cake with 100 candles. Will Dame Vera be jumping out of it? We wouldn’t put it past her.

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The Londoner loved Emily Hill’s video of burning a wedding dress to crowdfund the publication of her collection of short stories, Bad Romance. And it seems we’re not the only ones. Comedian Ben Elton pledged via Unbound. “J K Rowling famously made Nikesh Shukla’s The Good Immigrant happen and now Ben is helping to make Bad Romance happen,” Emily enthused, adding he is, “I suspect, an absolutely massive raving feminist in man shape.” We’re sure she’ll be Dead Famous soon.

Ticked off yet Assange?

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Is this the beginning of an epic Twitter battle? Yesterday Julian Assange the WikiLeaks founder currently holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy, tweeted Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey with a complaint. “This is absurd,” he said, posting a screengrab of a message: “A request to verify this account has been reviewed and denied.”

For those unfamiliar with social media, this means that Assange was hoping to gain a blue tick, which would distinguish him from copycats or Twitter plebs. “We’ve been trying to verify this account since early October,” he moaned.

The decision to deny his request could be the latest crackdown on controversial comments: alt-Right tool Milo Yiannopoulos, rapper Azealia Banks and SNL writer Katie Rich have all fallen foul of Twitter regs.

Assange set up the account in 2011, reactivated it in February, and has 109,000 followers. But this raises questions: the embassy cut Assange’s net access over accusations that he leaked anti-Hillary info during the US election. Has his ban been rescinded, or did frequent visitor Pamela Anderson drop off a dongle?

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Tweet of the day: “If we’re getting IndyRef 2 because Brexit changed the situation since IndyRef 1, why not get Brexit 2 as IndyRef 2 will change it all again?”

Buzzfeed's Marie Le Conte on the further possibilities of neverendums.

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Aisle have that space

Kara Rose Marshall, the model ex of Harry Styles, was going one direction on a Virgin train yesterday. Considering that Jeremy Corbyn caused such a furore when he claimed to have been unable to find a seat on a Virgin train journey, how nice that she could find space for herself and her boots.

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Joke of the day: Mayor Sadiq Khan, in a Brexit committee meeting, answering a question from Michael Gove: “I’m not an expert in that area, Michael, I’m sure you can get an expert to answer.

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