AS SARAH BROWN knows, if only the rest of the country put in the same hours in the office as her husband, Britain would be enjoying the Chancellor’s long hoped-for productivity miracle.
At no time has that been truer than in the run-up to tomorrow’s Budget. With the cheering news at the weekend that the Browns are expecting a baby in October, Sarah has dropped some prescient hints about domestic life.
They are contained in her new book, Moving On Up, Inspirational Advice to Change Your Life, which describes through a series of first person accounts how the likes of Delia Smith, Sir Richard Branson, Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, and George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, reached the top. Proceeds from the book go to Piggy- BankKids, the children's charity that Sarah chairs.
While the rise of Branson, Ridley Scott and the footballer Michael Owen are interesting, it is the delightful author’s comments that are the most eye-catching in the light of the weekend announcement.
“I imagine we all acknowledge that parenting has the greatest influence,” she writes. “But what happens if your parents can’t provide the time and support they would ideally want to? It is very hard for any child growing up without this support to gain the self-confidence they need. Or to learn about all the options and choices for careers available.
“Our contributors show that the influence of other adults who took the time to reach, encourage and advise them has also had a lifetime’s influence.”
Gordon. Make sure you read this book.
- As Scottish Nationalists gear up for next month’s elections
there has been one early victory for devolutionists. The new edition of
the Church of Scotland hymn book has exorcised any Sassenach
influences. Among the 250 hymns removed are Jerusalem,
Lord, Dismiss Us With Thy Blessing and Kipling’s Land of
Our Birth.
- Dramatic measures: The Royal Court Theatre in
Sloane Square, London, has tightened security, but it has nothing to do
with its early-evening anti-war diatribes. The reason is the frenzy
engendered by the appearance in Terry Johnson’s play, Hitchcock
Blonde, of the former Bond girl Rosamund Pike. Naked.
It has proved too much of a temptation for members of the usually highbrow audience who have sneaked cameras into the stalls to capture Pike in her birthday suit.
Nicole Kidman caused a similar flurry in The Blue Room at the Donmar for a mere nanosecond of nudity, which was described by one critic as “pure theatrical Viagra”.
Pike reveals all for rather more stage time, and at three hours the Hitchcock Blonde is certainly not short of that.
Sharpe wilts after fourth adventureDO NOT bother buying Tom Sharpe’s latest book about Wilt, his best-known character. The veteran South African author says that all two million words are “lousy”.
Sharpe, 74, asked during a talk in Cheltenham if he had always intended to keep writing into old age, replied: “No, and I wish to God I had not! I am on the fourth Wilt and it’s lousy.” He added: “If something doesn’t make me laugh it’s not going to make anyone else laugh either.”
Sharpe has delighted millions of readers since his debut with Riotous Assembly in 1971, following it with Indecent Exposure and Porterhouse Blue, which was filmed with David Jason. Asked why keeps on writing if his heart is not in it, Sharpe said: “I got a vast contract.”
The prospects of Wilt appearing again now look uncertain, which is just as well if the author’s self-criticism is even half accurate.
Mutual admiration
IT WILL be standing room only next month at a dinner to mark the 25th anniversary of the Tories taking control of Wandsworth Council, their flagship borough. Baroness Thatcher is guest of honour. Despite her self-imposed vow of silence, she is bound to speak. It is just as well there are no elections in London this year. Having levied the biggest council tax increase in the country, 45 per cent, the Tories could have lost power before the Thatcher love-in.
- Barbara Bush has named George
Bush as the person she most admires. “I can't help but wonder,
is this the same kid I used to spank?” she told a gathering in Ohio.
Let us hope that she was talking about her son and not her husband.
- Kylie Minogue, pop sex goddess of the moment, gay icon and belter out of a dance tune, will make her debut in a ballet tomorrow. Minogue has performed a seven-minute contemporary dance sequence, choregoraphed by Rafael Bonachela, with the Rambert Dance Company. The video sequence will be projected on to a translucent gauze screen in front of the Rambert dancers at Clwyd Theatre Cymru in North Wales before its London premiere at Sadler’s Wells next month. Minogue is following in the footsteps of her mother, Carol, a former ballet dancer.
