Dear Helena Frith Powell Wonderful piece in Thursday’s Mail on the pomposity of ladies who object to an innocent pinch of le derriere. I’m what you might describe as an older man, but still have hair, most of my own teeth and am told very occasionally …

My arrival home has been dominated by cricket. My stepson Hugo has been watching the test match and Leo has become very interested. “One day you’ll play cricket for England,” Rupert said to him this morning. “Yes, now,” said Leo. “You can’t play cricke …

It is three months ago since Madeleine was abducted as she slept beside her twin brother and sister in the McCann’s holiday apartment in Portugal. Gerry, her father, has just been to the US to publicise her disappearance. He is said to be keen to go ba …

I am happily installed in the Hotel Alla Noce in Limone, a town on Lake Garda. I am here to finish my next book and have chosen this place due to a gene they have that means they live longer. Apparently ten per cent of the population is between 100 and …

My laptop and I have been reunited and are on our way to Lake Garda where we are going to spend a week finishing To Hell in High Heels. I have left Rupert alone with five children. It was six, but one of them went back home today, so he really has noth …

Yesterday Banaz Mahmod’s father and uncle were jailed for life for her “honour” killing. It emerged that not only was the poor girl garrotted and buried in a suitcase, but that she was subjected to a two-hours of rape and torture beforehand. Her uncle …

I have arrived in the Savoie with a faulty outlook express. This means I can’t open any emails. This is the sort of thing that makes me so angry I want to throw my laptop at the nearest mountain, but instead I am going to try to stay zen and focus on t …

At her christening when Olivia was only a few weeks old Mrs Miller, a friend of ours and wife to Olivia’s godfather, took her in her arms. “This child is a control freak,” she said. Mrs Miller at the time was running Goldman Sachs legal division global …

Summer is really here. I know this not just because it is extremely hot, but my house is full of children. In addition to the usual three I have my stepchildren Hugo and Julia here, along with Julia’s best friend Annabelle. My three-year-old son has ad …

Today is the 14th of July and all over France people will be celebrating the overthrowing of the ruling classes and the beginning of liberté, égalité, fraternité. Not me. As a royalist I will be celebrating the birthday of Sweden’s Princess Victoria. S …