Matthew Steeples invites you to an evening with ‘Waking The Dead’ writer and co-founder of ‘Byline Times’ Peter Jukes on 20th May 2026 at PJ’s Chelsea Brasserie, London
Matthew Steeples of The Steeple Times
invites you to
An evening with author, screenwriter, playwright and journalist Peter Jukes
Writer: ‘Holby City’, ‘The Inspector Lynley Mysteries’ and ‘Waking The Dead’
Author: ‘A Shout in the Street’ and ‘The Fall of the House of Murdoch’
Podcaster: ‘Untold: The Daniel Morgan Murder Exposed’
Co-founder: ‘Byline Times’
The Steeple Times – Discussion and Dinner
at PJ’s Chelsea Brasserie, 52 Fulham Road, London, SW3 6HH
on Wednesday 20th May 2026
THE EVENING
* Arrivals for a Prosecco reception in a private setting on the first floor of PJ’s Chelsea Brasserie from 6.30pm. Those arriving earlier are welcome to enjoy a drink at the ground floor PJ’s bar.
* Matthew Steeples in conversation with Peter Jukes at 7pm prompt with audience questions to follow for 30 minutes. The format will be similar to our previous discussions with amongst others biographer and true crime legend Geoffrey Wansell, Britain’s best known crime correspondent Martin Brunt of Sky News, actor, writer and producer Steven Berkoff, filmmaker Amanda Eliasch, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York author Andrew Lownie and Manhunt and Crime Suspect host Peter Bleksley. There will be an opportunity for questions.
* 3-course dinner with wine, with options for those with particular dietary requirements, to follow. Guests will have the opportunity to chat with Peter Jukes and Matthew Steeples during the dinner.
* After dinner, guests will be welcome to continue discussions downstairs at the legendary PJ’s bar for further cocktails and conversation.
PETER JUKES
Swindon born Peter Jukes graduated from Queens’ College, Cambridge with a double first in English. A self-declared “Jack of all trades,” Peter’s early plays were performed by Tilda Swinton and Johanna Scalon and his contemporaries at the Cambridge Footlights numbered Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry and Emma Thompson.
During a veritable and varied career, here is a personable polymath who has worked as a journalist, playwright, screenwriter, literary critic and author. Aside from being lauded as an expert in the art of dark comedy, on television and radio, Peter is primarily known for his work in the field of crime thrillers and medical dramas. Credits have included The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Waking the Dead and Sea of Souls. His opening episode of the third season of Holby City was described by The Guardian as “the televisual equivalent of crack” whilst his 20-part series about the murder of the British private investigator Daniel Morgan topped the UK iTunes podcast chart.
Delving into the phone hacking scandal took Peter down a rabbit hole that resulted in him becoming the first person to ‘live tweet’ a trial on his iPad (with the permission of the presiding judge, Mr Justice Saunders). After spending nearly 9 months doing this in 2013 and 2014 and having written a book about the paradoxes of the News Corp head honcho, Rupert Murdoch, titled The Fall of the House of Murdoch, in 2012, he co-founded the crusading investigative title Byline Times in 2012.
The work of Peter Jukes and his colleagues on topics ranging from Brexit and Cambridge Analytic to Jeffrey Epstein’s expressed desire to establish a church for “confession privilege” have resulted in Byline Times being described as a “counter-balance to the billionaire dominated British press.”
BOOKING
Tickets are priced at £85 per person and include a glass of Prosecco on arrival and half a bottle of either red or white wine per person with dinner.
To pay by bank transfer, please use the details below or alternatively please make a transfer of £85 per ticket to the account listed below by clicking the following link:
Tickets can only be purchased in advance and guest names must be supplied for allocated place settings. The deadline for booking is 6pm on Tuesday 19th May 2026. Tickets are issued on a non-refundable basis.
MENU
The ticket price includes a glass of Prosecco on arrival, ½ a bottle of either red or white wine per person and a three course meal.
An examination of the true character traits of the Duchess of Sussex’s PR peddling biased ‘bestie’ Omid Scobie by Nikolay Kalinin
Apart from being a royal editor for Harper’s Bazaar, Omid Scobie claims to be “an authoritative voice on the lives and philanthropic endeavors of the royal family’s younger members.” Strangely though, very little is actually known about this mysterious meddler and given his supposed “fame,” isn’t it strange that there isn’t even a Wikipedia page about him?
On his Twitter feed, Scobie does pompously announce that he’s written a “Sunday Times bestseller” called Finding Freedom about Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and their subsequent marriage and defection from the royal family to contradictorily being “private” in the commercial sector. He doesn’t, however, add that said tosh filled tome went to half-price, bargain basement in most bookstores.
In August 2020, the ‘Daily Mail’ shared that plastic-not-fantastic Omid previously worked at gossip magazine ‘Heat’ and partied with the ‘glamour model’ Jodie Marsh. They mentioned how somebody had “airbrushed” Meghan Markle’s “entry on the online encyclopedia Wikipedia… to include more flattering details days before her romance with Prince Harry became public” and illustrated the ‘Finding Freedom’ author’s “drastic transformation” in two very different photographs.Illustrating himself to be anything but a real journalist, “influencer” Scobie told the ‘Women in Leadership Publication’: “A casual follower be forgiven for thinking that royal news is just fizzy commentary on the pomp and soap opera of The Firm” in their spring 2021 edition. He self-importantly added: “Reaching millions on Twitter has also enabled my own views and advocacy to travel further” and concluded: “I want to do everything I can to ensure that individuals from every background can get a seat at the table.” Here is someone far from a journalist; here, in fact, is someone who should just be called out as the Duchess of Sussex’s PR peddler.
According to HITC, Scobie was born in Oxfordshire to an Iranian mother and a Scottish father. His papa, Bill Scobie, runs a marketing group called Lingo; it has only one Twitter follower and he purports also to be a musician.
Scobie’s journalistic career began when he worked as a reporter for the gossip go-to Heat. He quit the magazine after he claimed that an executive called him a “P**i” in an email. Whether he was compensated or got an apology for this unproven allegation remains unknown.
Meanwhile, WaliKali suggests that Scobie’s net worth is $800k. It is not only mysterious as to how they managed to calculate that, but it’s also impossible because this means that his net worth is more than that of say LBC host Nick Ferrari – even though the latter has a bigger audience than Scobie and is certainly a far better-known figure.
Scobie’s circle of associates is just as curious; for example, Markus Anderson – a man who mysteriously went from a waiter at Soho House to become one of their top consultants – supposedly introduced Scobie to Markle and was the one who led him on the path of becoming an unofficial spin doctor for the Sussexes. Not much is known about Anderson in general; he was born in Canada and according to Town & Country, “his upbringing has influenced his taste in beverages.”
Scobie has a verified Twitter account with over 70,000 followers, which sounds legitimate, except for the fact that in reality 26% – almost 19,000 – of those followers are fake. If you’re the kind of person who uses fake followers, that means you are the kind of person who has no legitimacy in the media industry.
Things are no better for Scobie’s associate Carolyn Durand, who co-wrote Finding Freedom. She has over 12,000 followers on Twitter, of whom almost 44% – in other words 5,293 followers – are fake. It’s surprising how she is also verified on Twitter.
The “Sunday Times bestseller” Finding Freedom has 4/5 stars on Amazon.co.uk, which gives the impression that it was well-liked by readers. It is true that the book did top the charts in the UK, selling 31,000 copies in almost a week. However, what many forget is that a group of people called “Sussex Squad” – which sounds like a battalion of people who could execute anyone who dare criticise the Duchess of Sussex – had been leaving fake 5-star reviews on Amazon on purpose, until Amazon stopped that by limiting reviews to “verified purchases.”
The analysis of the book from esteemed media outlets were no better; whereas on Amazon the book is listed as being described by the Daily Telegraph as “utterly gripping,” the actual review references it as “a one massive moanathon – a one-sided, highly biased, self-pitying account of the relationship (between Harry and Meghan).”
What’s even worse is that both the Duke and Duchess of Sussex actually disowned the biography before it was even published; as the Daily Express reports, the Duchess of Sussex’s lawyer had claimed that the book is “either extremely anodyne and/or I understand are the product of creative licence and/or are inaccurate.” Bizarrely, later, her representative argued that she contributed to the book, but did not provide the authors with the contents of the letter sent to her estranged father.
Scobie’s unreliability can also be evidenced by the fact that he accused the Duke of Cambridge’s aides of planting reports that the latter was “worried about Harry’s mental health,” while not providing evidence that this was the case. Honestly, if you want some-one to believe your side of the story regarding the affair, you have to provide solid evidence, and that goes for both sides.
It seems that ITV too have become suspicious of ‘Spin Doctor Scobie’ as his comments about “planted reports” were cut at the last minute from their documentary Harry & William: What Went Wrong? It aired last night and told opinions on the story about Princes Harry and William’s supposed “rift.”
Scobie is also advertised on the HarperCollins website as the host of ABC’s “popular” podcast The Heir Pod, yet the podcast is anything but popular. If you go to Chartable, a service which provides statistics on podcasts, the podcast does have a rating of 4.7 stars out of 5, but only on the basis of 735 reviews. Meanwhile, popular podcasts within the news category – of which The Heir Pod is listed in – such as the BBC’s Global News podcast and The Ben Shapiro Show have thousands of reviews, which demonstrates that there is practically no engagement with Scobie’s podcast.
Another piece evidence of the podcast being anything but “popular” is the fact that it doesn’t chart in any of the big markets such as the US, UK, Canada or Australia. At the time of writing, The Heir Pod charts in Argentina (160th place), Kyrgyzstan (248th place), Antigua and Barbuda (125th place) and Bhutan (138th place). It thus seems to me like ABC is pointlessly wasting millions on a podcast which its target audience doesn’t even want to listen to.
Similarly, Scobie and other members of the sanctimoniously sinsister “Sussex Squad” have silenced and attacked Kate Robertson, a youth organisation leader who criticised the Duchess of Sussex on Twitter for not resolving her grievances with the royal family in private. Eventually, they forced her to delete the tweet and apologise.
Later, Scobie went on Good Morning Britain and justified what happened by saying: “Everyone’s allowed the right to have an opinion on this,” but then also stated: “It stands out when someone speaks so against the couple.” To me, this sounds like pure reinforcement of double standards. Honestly, if you have to rely on ‘cancel culture’ and suppression of freedom of speech in order to defeat your opponent, you don’t deserve to be called a journalist and you certainly should be seen as a threat to society rather than a respected public figure.
What all of this demonstrates is that Omid Scobie is not a genuinely honest reporter and most certainly not the “authoritative voice on the lives and philanthropic endeavors of the royal family’s younger members” that he claims to be. The truth, instead, is that Omid Scobie is a washed-up, childish clot who tries yet fails to portray himself as someone with legitimacy and it’s about time that he got exposed for being nothing but ‘MeGain’s’ number one PR peddler.
Whilst Omid Scobie’s podcast, #TheHeirPod, was “downgraded from ‘a real chore’ to ‘unlistenable’” according to ‘Royal Analysis,’ the true revelation is that it isn’t even popular in the places where it surely should be most relevant, Britain and America.An analysis of Omid Scobie’s Twitter feed clearly shows that a large proportion of his followers are a bit like himself: FAKE.
When he’s not bragging about wearing Balenciaga, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior or sharing photos of his dog, Yoshi, on his Instagram account, the ‘Finding Freedom’ author constantly bangs on about how he believes the royal family to have racist elements. His speculation is rarely supported by anything other than unnamed sources that give his suggestions little to no credibility.Markus Anderson with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and her mother, Doria Ragland.
Canadian waiter turned Soho House director Markus Anderson was allegedly the person to have introduced Prince Harry and the then Meghan Markle. This “champagne partial” individual has been repeatedly linked also to Omid Scobie online on sites such as Quora whilst the site ‘Royal Analysis’ has reported: “Well, apparently, Omid and Markus used to be very close. I don’t think it’s out of the question for Markus to have facilitated Meghan and Omid getting together to strategize about what positive press coverage Omid could give to Meghan.”
After the ‘Daily Mail’s’ Richard Kay shared what he knew of Diana, Princess of Wales’ non-reconciliation with Sarah, Duchess of York because of verrucas, we look at other examples of Fergie’s foot related f**k ups
Late last night, on what would have been the eve of the 60th birthday of Diana, Princess of Wales, the rightly revered journalist and friend of the royal Richard Kay wrote about what he remembers of her 36th and last birthday in 1997.
In a scorching article for the Daily Mail, Kay brought up not only Donald Trump and David Tang, but also referenced Prince Harry and Prince William’s mother’s animosity to her former sister-in-law, Sarah, Duchess of York that day – and revealed, once again, that it was caused by a row over foot infections.
Speaking of ‘verruca-gate,’ Kay remarked:
“Later that night, [Diana] called me again. Among the birthday cards had been a letter from Fergie. The two women, who had been through so much together, were now estranged.”
“The reason? Fergie’s autobiography in which she had written that she had once caught verrucas from wearing a pair of Diana’s shoes. There were other reasons, too, involving issues of trust.”
“The princess was furious and, ever since the book’s publication the previous autumn, the pair had not spoken. Until this point, nobody knew. But that night a newspaper was set to go public with the details.”
“A friend alerted Diana and she immediately abandoned the letter of thanks she was about to write to the duchess in which she said she was prepared to offer her friendship again. The two women, once so close because of adversity, were never to be reconciled.”
Toe sucking twerp Sarah Ferguson with the then Lady Meyer, a lover of Chanel shoes amongst other things and an advisor on footwear to the “kitten heeled” cretin Theresa May amongst others.
Curiously, feet and foot fetishes seem to be something that go side-by-side with Fergie. Not only did her toe sucking incident with John Bryan in August 1992 soil her somewhat already soiled ‘reputation,’ but it must be remembered that the ‘Duchess of Dork’ also got herself involved with the shameless and not-at-all selfless charity tinbanger Catherine (now unbelievably and quite unjustifiably Baroness) Meyer in the 2000s – a “Chanel clad” woman who cringeworthily once made Michael (now Lord) Howard drink champagne out of her shoe at a party.
Going further and after taking money from the thankfully now croaked paedophile Jeffrey Epstein with the help of her other mate, the now incarcerated mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell, the ‘Duchess of Downright Dim’ stuck her pork trotters in the proverbial in May 2019 whilst visiting Ontario, Canada. For the occasion, this ludicrous lush wore a not-so-ironic pair of pumps emblazoned with “never complain and “never explain.” Whilst she certainly had “foot-in-mouth” disease on that outing, it remains unknown if she had a verruca to go with them also.
It’s now time for one final thing for childlike ‘Farting Fergie’; it’s finally time to shoe out this ridiculous rotter before she shoves her terrible tootsies in yet another slurry pit.
Pictured top (left to right): A verruca infected toe, the Duchess of York’s inappropriate footwear and the warbling wastrel wearing said shoes.
On Thursday 20th August 1992, the ‘Daily Mirror’ shared what they called “the pictures they didn’t want you to see.” In them, a topless Duchess of York was shown having her toes sucked in the South of France by a Texan millionaire named John Bryan. Of the incident, the ‘Mirror’ later reported: “Royal writer Richard Kay claimed in the ‘Daily Mail’ that he received a message via pager from Princess Diana the night before the photos hit the newspaper stands. Diana’s message was simple: ‘The redhead’s in trouble.’”
One is left wondering if Sarah, Duchess of York (pictured here with her deservedly incarcerated mucky madam mate Ghislaine Maxwell) spent any of the money she got from the paedophile, sex trafficker of children Jeffrey Epstein on shoes.
Nikolay Kalinin analyses Laurence Fox’s decision to pull out of the Batley and Spen by-election and suggests this batty man’s days in politics are nearly numbered
As if Labour hasn’t had enough losses this year despite numerous revelations regarding the Conservative government’s utter incompetence, their retention of control over the Batley and Spen constituency is under serious jeopardy.
Fox also mentioned in his statement that a major reason for his decision to withdraw is the events at the Batley Grammar School, where a teacher was suspended and received death threats after showing a cartoon of Muhammed from the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which Fox called “a blight on our free, tolerant, fair and democratic society.”
Nevertheless, Fox also mentioned in his statement that he would be inviting both Conservative and Labour candidates to a meeting with the citizens of the constituency “very soon to discuss tolerance in the UK.”
It’s very hard to understand how Reclaim could have split the vote had it stood in the election, but most likely they would have successfully capitalised on the grammar school incident. They would have probably have painted it as an oppression of freedom of speech, thereby convincing more right-wing people to vote and preventing the Conservatives from winning the seat.
One thing we can conclude from this episode however is that Fox is not intending to go anywhere anytime soon. Even though this loony was humiliated by YouTuber Niko Omilana at the recent London mayoral elections, he is showing great determination to make his party successful.
Still, we have to keep in mind that much of the reason why Reclaim is known by many people is because of Fox’s utter insanity and because the very, very wealthy financier Jeremy Hosking is strangely not yet tired of funding his operation. The people will eventually move on to better politicians, and Hosking will realise that his large investments into Fox’s party of clowns has not proved beneficial. All in all, the days of Laurence Fox’s political career are quite deservedly numbered.
Yesterday, seeking yet more attention, 43-year-old Laurence Fox took to Twitter to condemn the England squad as “millionaire woke babies” for taking the knee. He continued by suggesting he hopes England will lose in the first round of the Euros and added: “I’m embarrassed to be British.”
In spite of wasting a huge amount of Jeremy Hosking’s money – said to be upto £5 million – Laurence Fox’s 2021 London mayoral election campaign was an utter disaster. He won 47,634 votes, achieved just 1.9% of the vote and thus effectively spent £104.97 for every vote the Reclaim Party received. As a result, Fox lost his £10,000 deposit paid to London Elects, the Greater London Authority team responsible for organising the election of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly as he failed to achieve the 5% of votes or higher required to retain the deposit. The public, however, may now find themselves in a worse situation – Laurence Fox might return to making awful music condemned as “more Chelsea Travelodge than Chelsea Hotel.” Of it, in January 2020, the ‘Guardian’s’ Michael Hann observed: “Laurence Fox’s music doesn’t sound as if it had to exist. It sounds as if it exists because he had the wherewithal to make it, and because his name meant there would always be people willing to give it a plug. The very definition of privilege, really.”Aside from being the co-founder of Marathon Asset Management, University of Cambridge educated Jeremy Hosking is a shareholder in Crystal Palace F. C. as well as the owner of the Gravetye Manor hotel in Sussex. He previously funded the Conservative Party, Vote Leave and the Brexit Party prior to becoming financially involved with Laurence Fox’s Reclaim Party.In September 2020, ‘The Steeple Times’ suggested Laurence Fox had “morphed from a much loved tellybox treasure into a tedious twerp.” In the time since, he’s got even worse.
Nikolay Kalinin joins those condemning Boris Johnson’s decision to waste £200 million on a boat Britain didn’t ask for (or need)
Remember when Eurosceptics pledged Brexit would enable the government to give £350 million per week ($496 million, €406 million or درهم1.8 billion per week) to the NHS? Well, now we finally know where that money is actually going as the government has officially decided to waste some of it commissioning a vanity ship they claim will showcase the “best of British.”
Yet, one cannot ignore that this project seems so pointless and unnecessarily expensive, a fact that has been called out by figures in Parliament. When asked about the diplomatic benefits of “recommissioning HM Yacht Britannia” by Conservative MP for Romford, Andrew Rosindell, President for COP26, Alok Sharma, admitted: “The royal yacht was used on just 37 occasions for… signing trade deals during 1989 – 1997. There’s no evidence that the yacht made a difference to the trade deals secured in these years and this level of use would not represent a good return on investment.”
The Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Bridget Phillipson, also seemed to agree, stating: “We want to see public money used for targeted investment in a green economic recovery, resources for our NHS, and supporting families to succeed.”
She added that if the government does go ahead with the plan to build the yacht: “We’d want to see it built in Britain, supporting jobs and skills in shipyards here, and with a real focus on value for money at every stage.”
What we are seeing here once again is the government misappropriating taxpayers’ money in order to reinforce the fake vision of muscular unionism. The government is trying to reinforce a vision of a united Britain and ‘Britishness’ not through progressive deeds that reflect ‘British values,’ but through objects such as yachts named after recognisable things.
It’s not only the costly yacht however that reflects the idea that ‘muscular unionism’ is so empty, as some time ago an autonomous company launched trials of a self-driving bus in Cambridge, which was draped in the Union Jack.
Comedian Jonathan Pie reacted to the news by calling the bus “the perfect visual metaphor for a country in the grips of such inept and directionless leadership,” while Lord Andrew Adonis mockingly wrote that it “looks like a Brexit bus.”
While I like flags as much as the next man, the fact that ‘BoJo’ seems hellbent on putting them up everywhere demonstrates that his government has nothing much to offer. If Johnson really wants to unite the people of his country, he should work on fixing the rift between his government and Scotland and solve the problems Northern Ireland is facing as a result of Brexit.
The Queen’s love of the Royal Yacht Britannia was never a secret, but even she’s said to believe the decision to order a replacement to be quite beyond unrequired. Meanwhile, the most enthusiastic tin banger for the expensive tub has been Christopher Hope of ‘The Telegraph.’ He has run the paper’s campaign for the vessel since September 2016 and written three dozen articles in support of what he believes to be “putting right [the] historical wrong” of not having a royal yacht.
‘Tatler’ magazine called out for suggesting a Chelsea restaurant that closed down in August 2016 as a “hot spot” post ‘Lockdown 3.0’ ending in May 2021
A “tattler” is an “observer or spectator… a gossip who tells tales,” whilst ‘THE’ Tatler is defined by the Oxford Learners’ Dictionary as “a British magazine, published once a month and containing articles about upper-class and upper-middle-class social events, fashion and the arts.”
Given the Condé Nast lifestyle publication’s staff – amongst them previously the current editor of the Daily Mail, Geordie Greig, and the ex-editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, Tina Brown CBE – have variously included many Oxbridge alumni, one would assume they’d be a little better at fact checking than the notoriously sloppy seconds employed by the MailOnline (which is rated 1 out of 5 by the Microsoft Edge browser given its propensity to share fake news), but instead a recent edition of the monthly society bible featured a complete balls-up.
“[Brasserie Gustave at 4 Sydney Street, London, SW3 6PP is] located at the exact point where South Ken meets Chelsea (and on a site that has seen more restaurants than Ramires has had yellow cards), this French bistro is a keeper. If the art-deco posters look a bit hackneyed, not to say banal, the food is anything but. It’s fresh and lively, classic French dishes prepared with punctilious attention to detail. Confit de canard is superb and you won’t find a better plate of kidneys in London. Great wines too, managed with gusto by experienced sommelier Richard Weiss.”
Whilst of their thirteen selections, the loathed by Dan Wootton magazine prattled: “We’ve eaten our way around Chelsea’s top restaurants… We’ve got you covered,” a comment on OpenTable from as long ago 22nd August 2016 reads: “I made a reservation and got there and the restaurant was closed.” Plainly, anyone with half a brain would have realised five years ago that Brasserie Gustave turned out actually to be anything but “a keeper.”
In the time since, Tatler’s editorial team also missed their very own one-time contributor Giles Coren’s visit to 4 Sydney Street on 15th July 2017. At that time, he lauded “pan-Asian” Zheng Chelsea as “the sort of places foodies go in quest of the new and wonderful.”
Pictured top: 4 Sydney Street has been various restaurants over the years including Carpaccio, Sette, Marco Pierre White’s Sydney Street Grill, Brasserie Gustave and most recently Zheng Chelsea.
The magazine’s May 2020 feature on Brasserie Gustave – a restaurant that closed in August 2016.In August 2016, an OpenTable user commented: “I made a reservation for [Brasserie Gustave] on Open Table and got there and the restaurant was closed.”The front elevation of Zheng Chelsea, 4 Sydney Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 6PP.The interior of the restaurant as it used to be during the era that Brasserie Gustave (left) occupied the site and as it has been since circa 2016 as “pan-Asian” Zheng Chelsea (right). Of food there, in July 2017, Giles Coren remarked: “Food this good and this unusual would normally never be found in Chelsea… Chelsea is not absolutely the last place in the entire world that I would go looking for brilliant authentic Malaysian cooking, but it comes close. What with the well-upholstered complacency of the locals, the lack of any significant oriental population, the high throughput of tourists and idle shoppers in need of plasticky chain food, the sky-high rents and concomitant historical lack of any decent restaurants here at all, Chelsea is perhaps the second last place in the known universe that I would go in expectation of fiery, original, challenging but entirely successful Straits Chinese cuisine.”The society go-to title was previously accused of a “swathe of inaccuracies and false misrepresentations” in May 2020 by Kensington Palace after it published an article about one-time friend of its current editor, Richard Dennen (pictured together right), the Duchess of Cambridge titled “Catherine the Great.”
Crumbling Northamptonshire estate Lilford Hall – where the little owl was introduced to Britain – for sale for £10 million, a sum £35 million lower than in 2014
Grade I listed Jacobean mansion with 13 chimney stacks for sale for £10 million; it was for sale last for £44.9 million in 2014 in spite of being listed on English Heritage’s ‘At Risk Register.’
Lilford Hall – parts of which have not been occupied since 1947 –is currently owned by a businessman who tried to sell burial plots in the grounds for £1,250 a pop and shares in a yacht loosely associated with Frank Sinatra for £23 each.
The 321-acre estate includes not only overgrown parkland, but also a zoo with cages that formerly housed bears and a lake for flamingos.
From 1711 until 1990, Lilford House was the seat of the Powys family – the 4th baron is credited with introducing the little owl to the UK.
More recently, in 1969, the “sexual mystic” artist Penny Slinger used the at-the-time derelict mansion in one of her best-known works.
A 32,406 square foot Grade I listed Jacobean mansion 82 miles from Central London has gone on sale for £10 million – or the equivalent of just £308 per square foot.
On this basis, Lilford Hall – set in 321 acres near Oundle – seems a comparative bargain when considered against the £4,786 per square foot sought for a Lennox Gardens, Knightsbridge triplex flatThe Steeple Times featured in May, but buyers need to remember this – parts of this crumbling building, most notably the major state rooms, have not been used since 1947.
Marketed last in 2014 for the even more punchy sum of £45 million, the “exceptional residential and amenity estate located on the River Nene,” is now offered by agents Savills. The “wonderfully proportioned” U-shaped mansion itself is constructed of grey limestone and includes over 100 rooms and amongst them are 7 “impressive” reception rooms, a ballroom, a ‘great chamber’ and 9 bedrooms. In addition, there are two Georgian pavilions that were formerly coach houses and stabling, three cottages, a former zoo, the oldest private softball court in the world, a former flamingo enclosure and a deer park.
“Impressiveness in the chief attribute of Lilford Hall as a specimen of architecture” claimed County Life in 1990 and as the seat of the Powys family from 1711 until 1990, it became not only a Downton Abbey-esque entertaining pad, but also housed nurses in the Second World War. Here, indeed, is an English country house that has seen lavishness and decline and thankfully here is an example that thankfully escaped the wrecking ball wrought so disgracefully on such houses in the 1950s and 1960s.
Fascinatingly in the 1880s, Thomas Powys, 4th Baron Lilford filled his aviaries on the estate with rheas, kiwis, pink-headed ducks, free-flying lammergeiers and it was from here that he also introduced the little owl into the UK. There are said to be around 5,700 breeding pairs today, but sadly, according to the RSPB, their numbers are now in decline.
More recently, in 1969, “sexually erotic” performance artist Penny Slinger took over the by then “derelict” mansion in conjunction with the filmmaker Peter Whitehead. Their resulting work, titled An Exorcism, was exhibited internationally and in 2004, after the current owners, Charles and Aziza Micklewright, acquired the house, they did something equally avant-garde; they attempted to sell burial plots in the grounds to Americans by citing the estate’s connections to the founder of the Brownists, Robert Browne – a man better known as ‘The Father of the Pilgrims’ and ‘The Grandfather of the Nation’ (of the United States of America).
Whilst Mr and Mrs Micklewright were lauded for their considerable efforts towards the “huge task” of restoring Lilford Hall, they came to the attention of Historic England in May 2019 when the building was listed on the At Risk Register. At that time, the Oundle Chronicle reported: “The roof covering is in poor condition leading to water ingress and distress to the upper storeys. The front bays require structural attention. A schedule of urgent repairs has been identified but not implemented, and no long-term solution has been agreed.”
Now, someone with very, very deep pockets is required to restore this gem. It would be helpful if they liked erotic art, bears, squash and owls also.
The Names & Numbers – The Lilford Hall Estate, Lilford, Oundle, Peterborough, Northamptonshire, PE8 5SG, United Kingdom
June 2020 – The estate is listed sale for £10 million ($12.5 million, €11.1 million or درهم46 million) through Savills. It includes 321.31 acres, of which 148.17 acres are pasture land whilst 157.48 acres are woodland. The majority of the estate is held on a freehold title, whilst the remaining 127.6 acres – known as ‘The Linches’ and ‘Lilford Woods’ – are held on a lease with 91 years remaining.
2015 – Promoted as ‘The National Memorial Gardens,’ burial plots in the gardens of the hall were offered “available to any UK resident or national for an outstanding price of only £1,250 ($1,568, €1,393 or درهم5,758)” by Mark Bailey of Harley Investments. Around the same time, a website dedicated to Lilford Hall marketed “a piece of the formal gardens” for sale for £299 ($375, €333 or درهم1,377) to include “an officially certified ‘Squire of Lilford’ [title] … with this little piece of history.”
March 2014 – The Irish Times reported that the asking price for the estate had been increased to £44.9 million ($56.3 million, €50 million or 206.8درهم million). They claimed the agents Coldwell Banker blamed “confusion over currency conversion rates and new instructions from the owner.”
April 2014 – The Lilford Hall Estate is listed for sale through Coldwell Banker on MyHome.ie for £33.7 million ($44.2 million, €37.5 million or درهم155 million) on behalf of “an English gentleman.”
2004 – The estate is acquired by the Micklewright family. Little information is available online about the Old Framlingham Charles Micklewright (born July 1958), but he is described as a “patent attorney” on Companies Houses pages. The businessman is mentioned also as a publisher and trustee of the Marsh Christian Trust elsewhere, whilst his Singaporean born wife, Aziza (born 1964), was a director of Lilford Properties Limited from 2013 to 2018.
A website operated by Sign of the Times Limited, a Hong Kong company of Lilford Hall, Lilford, Oundle, Northamptonshire, PE8 5SG, currently offers shares in a yacht named ‘Sinatra the Voice’ for £23.91 ($29.99, €26.64 or درهم110.14) per share. The boat was built in 1956 and is tenuously linked to Frank Sinatra by the fact that a one-time owner, Beale Poste, loaned it occasionally to the crooner between 1968 and 1974 in West Palm Beach, Florida.
1990 – The estate is closed to the public.
1980s – The house is used as a location in the BBC English Civil War inspired historical drama series By the Sword Divided.
1970s – Aviaries on the estate restocked by George Powys, 7th Baron Lilford (1931 – 2005). He “opened [the estate] to the public as a leisure park” and housed more than 350 birds of 110 species there. It remained thus for around 20 years and included a restaurant and shop. The aviaries and the 1,896 square foot restaurant building remain present still today.
1969 – 1970 – American British “sexual mystic” artist Penny Slinger (born 1947) and Liverpudlian filmmaker Peter Whitehead used the “derelict mansion” as the setting for their works An Exorcism and Lilford Hall. They are lauded as a “photo romance” and exhibited at the Blum and Poe Gallery in Los Angeles in 2014, at the Haywood Gallery in London in 2015 and at the Fortnight Institute in New York in 2019.
1949 – Stephen Powys, 6th Baron Lilford (1869 – 1949) died without having married or having had children. His properties aside from Lilford – a house in Mayfair, Bank Hall in Lancashire and the Bewsey Estate in Cheshire – passed to his second cousin twice removed.
1947 – The estate is sold to a company named Merchant Ventures by the Powys family (though they remain present on the estate until 1990).
1939 – 1945 – During the Second World War, the parkland of the estate was used as a military hospital for nearby airfields. From 1949 to 1954, some of the buildings constructed during this period were then used as a Polish school.
1923 – First-class Northamptonshire cricketer Major John Powys, 5th Baron Lilford (1863 – 1945) built the first private softball court in the world in the grounds of the hall. It is now in disrepair and the roof has fallen into the inner court.
1909 – 1910 – The hall was extended in the Edwardian manner including the provision of a new master bedroom with dressing room and bathroom by William Dunn and Robert Watson of Dunn & Watson.
1901 – The estate surrounding the hall reaches its largest size and totals a vast 8,000 acres of land. Around this time, Queen Mary, wife of King George V, is said to have visited the gardens.
1880s – Ornithologist and expert on the fauna of the Balearics Thomas Littleton Powys, 4th Baron Lilford (1833 – 1896) introduces the little owl into England on the estate. His aviaries were said to “feature exotic birds from all around the world” and a species of European lizard, the Lilford’s wall lizard (Podarcis lilfordi), is named in his honour. The 4th baron is repeatedly mentioned in the works of Charles Darwin for his contribution to the study of the science of evolution.
1840s – Further changes to the building are orchestrated by the architect William Gilbee Habershon (circa 1818 – 1891). The Campaign to Protect Rural England described these Victorian extensions as “sensitive” in 2006 – a rare accolade given most additions to English country houses during this period were simply brash and vulgar.
1740s – The Palladian architect Henry Flitcroft (1697 – 1769) adds “outstanding” Georgian interiors whilst “respecting the hall’s Jacobean exterior.” He “softened and brightened” the building as a result and also “constructed the Georgian pavilions and additional storeys to the east end of the two wings.” Other works by Flitcroft can be seen at Bower House in Essex, Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire and Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire.
1711 – Lilford Hall is sold to the judge and Tory politician Sir Thomas Powys (1649 – 1719), Attorney General to King James II. Powys is best remembered for conducting the prosecution of the Seven Bishops in 1699. He is buried at Lilford.
1630s – Construction of the main exterior of what to this day remains Lilford Hall as a “Jacobean-style gentry house” by William Elmes (the younger).
1473 – The land that forms the estate is acquired by William Browne (1410 – 1489), a wealthy wool merchant and landowner from Stamford, from the estate of Baron Welles (who was beheaded by King Edward IV for treason). In 1495, “in a Tudor style,” he built a hall on the site and it passed to Robert Browne (1550 – 1633), the founder of the Brownists, ‘The Father of the Pilgrims’ and ‘The Grandfather of the Nation’ (of the United States of America).
Blow to British racing as Sheikh Fahad places his Longholes operation in Newmarket, Suffolk up for sale for £6 million to spend more time in California
Billed as a place for “preparing champions” and run by a “dedicated team” focused on pre-training and rehabilitation, Longholes was founded by the Accrington born “playboy” textile heir and racehorse breeder Sir George Bullough (1870 – 1939) in the 1920s and bought by Sheikh Fahad in 2013.
Sheikh Fahad Bin Abdullah Al Thani chats with David Redvers in 2016.Sheikh Fahad wiht his brothers Sheikh Hamad, Sheikh Suhiam and Sheikh Khalifa.Sheikh Fahad and his wife Sheikha Melissa with the late Roaring Lion.Sheikh Fahad won the Corinthian Challege at Leopardstown on the Gordon Elliott trained Brutal in October 2017.
Comprising of 217 acres of paddocks, schooling grounds and a 6-furlong gallop, the “renowned Newmarket stud farm” – which is 16 miles from Cambridge and 70 miles from London – includes not only 88 boxes, but also what has been described as a state-of-the-art “feel good factor” spa with hydro and water treadmill facilities amongst other things. There is a stud manager’s house, a guest cottage, a pair of staff bungalows and a pair of workers’ log cabins also.
“Sheikh Fahad purchased Longholes in 2013 with a view to turning the attractive and historic stud farm into a state-of-the-art pre-training and rehabilitation establishment servicing the requirements of his own Qatar Racing and also the wider training centre of Newmarket. Seven years later and Longholes boasts an incredible array of modern facilities, an outstanding team of committed and highly trained professional staff and a client list that boasts many of the most recognised names in horse racing, eventing and show jumping.”
“Sheikh Fahad is proud of what has been achieved at Longholes but a change in his own personal circumstances means that the farm’s exciting future now needs to be in another’s hands.”
Speaking to Nick Luck of Racing TV in April 2019, Sheikh Fahad remarked:
“We love horses, we’ve grown up with horses, me and my brothers. The idea was always to build something for the future, hopefully the long-term future, for generations to come. I’d like to see my kids grow up into a dynasty of breeding operations, of racing operations that they can take on from there.”
“I watched I think, my early memories… I watched Channel 4 Racing, I think the Cheltenham Festival. It was very different to racing back home. We only had one racetrack and it was flat racing and they go round in the circle. My dad was the leading Arab racehorse owner in the country, so he won everything. It seemed like it was that easy to do and I started watching racing here and I saw all the different racecourses and National Hunt. And we don’t have National Hunt back home, so I was very curious about the whole industry. I wanted to learn as much as possible from every angle of it.”
“I think the quality of racing, as you watch racing around the world, the biggest quality of racing is in England and Ireland in terms of top-class racing… It is good for the breed, it shows the best horses to breed onwards. The classics in Britain always prove to be the best source of that.”
Of the flaws of British racing in general and perhaps hinting at a move to spending more time participating in American racing, the Sheikh continued:
“It needs to up its game. It needs to find ways to attract more people into the sport. At the moment we are very grateful for the Sheikh Mohammeds in the business… Without Sheikh Mohammed [Bin Rashid Al Maktoum], this year would have been a disaster for a lot of people. The thing is that British racing needs to find more ways to attract quality. I think quality is very important.”
“If you look at, for instance, Japanese racing, they have got a two-tier system. They have the JRA and the NRA. The JRA is the elite class of racehorses and horse racing and I think if you don’t break your maiden as a three year-old, then I think, that horse is not allowed to run in the JRA anymore. They have to go down to the NRA. Why can’t that some way be explored in British racing? We can’t be racing, I think you’re asking people to race for two grand or three grand… whilst in Australia they have Saturday races with a minimum of a hundred grand a race. And in America, maidens are worth a hundred grand. And in California, I’ve got horses, and it seems ridiculous that, if you are taking a business point of view of racing and you open your books, that it would be ridiculous to have horses [in Britain] in comparison to there. The only reason we’re racing here is for the quality and prestige that we have at the moment, but you can’t rest on that. You have to change.”
Later, in September 2019, the Sheikh’s Californian trainer, Simon Callaghan, told TheRacing Post:
“Sheikh Fahad is upping his interest in racing in America. He’s spending more time in California, so he wants to go after some of these high-end colts and go down the road of the Derby, we hope… I think his Californian wife has something to do with it.”
Agents Windsor Clive seek £6 million ($7.5 million, €6.8 million or درهم27.4 million) for Longholes and offer it as a whole or in two lots. For the firm, George Windsor Clive remarked: “We’re still bringing Longholes to the market in these strange times [in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic] so that buyers can react quickly once restrictions are lifted.”
For now, the other European racing operations of the Sheikh and his brothers and their Qatar Racing Ltd. company – which includes a presence at the David Redvers owned Tweenhills Farm in Gloucestershire and their own Spring Lodge stud farm in County Limerick – remain unaffected.
Marie-Claire, Baroness von Alvensleben starts (yet another) racist tirade at a party in London and launches a website where she brands herself ‘Incredible Marie-Claire’
Last night, at a party in London, a bigoted baroness launched into a racist tirade about immigration and the European Union.
At the event in St James’s, Marie-Claire von Alvensleben – a woman previously sentenced to a six week suspended jail sentence for amongst other things stating “brown people are ruining London” in 2014 – waved her fingers wildly whilst ranting about Gina Miller and told guests that she thought Brexit to be “a wonderful thing.”
Elsewhere, this unhinged madwoman has now created her own website. On it she shares information about her “glamour and sophistication” and claims to have “learnt English” in Cambridge. She bizarrely expresses (given her sheer lack of such qualities) that she wished to have become a diplomat and adds: “I was very spoilt indeed.”
Immodest to her core, von Alvensleben also reports on her attempts to launch a Swiss version of Vogue – “despite her resilient efforts… [it] did not bear any fruit and folded” – and concludes:
“Marie-Claire has her own ‘Coat of Arms’. Her ex-husband, Baron Bodo von Alvensleben used to call her IMC ‘Incredible Marie-Claire’. Maybe because she believes nothing is impossible … She can arrange “almost” everything… It can all be arranged.”
Marie-Claire, Baroness von Alvensleben rolling around on the floor at another party with the equally awful former entertainer Michael Barrymore.
Harrow and Cambridge educated Old Masters expert Bendor Grosvenor describes himself as an “occasional ranter” to his 12,000 followers on Twitter. Aside from being amongst the team on the popular BBC One art programme Fake or Fortune?, Grosvenor has co-written a book titled Crap MPs: The 40 Worst Members of Parliament in History and another called Warts and All: The Portrait Miniatures of Samuel Cooper. He edits the extremely informative Arts History News blog, is of British-Swiss heritage and is fourth in line to the Marquessate of Westminster.
