Between the 26th June and 31st July, Bruce Oldfield is holding a sample sale at his Beauchamp Place showroom where he will offer a selection of couture occasion wear, wedding dresses and accessories.
Bruce Oldfield OBE with his Rhodesian RidgebackPippa and Carole Middleton pictured outside the Beauchamp Place showroom of Bruce OldfieldDiana, Princess of Wales pictured in a gown by Bruce OldfieldInformation about the Bruce Oldfield sample sale
Oldfield, who was brought up in the care of the children’s charity Barnardo’s, is deservedly one of Britain’s top fashion designers. He is renowned for his couture occasion wear and Samantha Cameron, Jemima Goldsmith, Joan Collins, Rhianna, Queen Rania of Jordan, Jerry Hall and Barbara Streisand number amongst his clients. Undoubtedly, however, his best-known customer was the late Diana, Princess of Wales.
Mr. Oldfield is a regular sight in the street where I live. Always accompanied by his two dogs, he is a man of exemplary charm and it is for this reason plainly that so many women put their faith in him. The talents of this graduate of St. Martin’s College of Art’s are recognised globally and though couture is his main arena, he even redesigned the staff uniform for McDonald’s in 2008.
Rest assured, ladies, this is a sample sale you most definitely should not miss.
Best known for her chilling novel The Woman in White, this writer also did a stint on the BBC’s The Archers and runs a small publishing house named Long Barn Books. Married to the Shakespeare scholar Professor Stanley Wells, Hill lives in a farmhouse with 50 acres of woodland in the Cotswolds and describes ghosts as having been: “Good to me.”
The sale of Battersea Power Station to SP Setia and Sime Darby
Battersea Power Station has for so long has been the saddest landmark in London. Since it was decommissioned as a power station in 1983, this Grade II* listed building designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott has rotted and various regeneration proposals have floundered.
Battersea Power Station
Described by selling agents Knight Frank as: “The last large development site in prime central London,” it was announced on the 6th June that the joint receivers had entered into an exclusivity agreement with Malaysian property developers SP Setia and their partner Sime Darby.
In the course of marketing, the selling agents showed the site to almost a 100-interested parties in just two months. Of this, Stephan Miles-Brown, head of residential development at Knight Frank, commented:
”We were always quite positive but now we are more positive than when we started the process. What has surprised us has been the numbers, there have been an enormous number of individual visits.”
A proposed design for the redevelopment of the Battersea Power Station site
Amongst the other bidders were Chelsea Football Club but sadly their proposal to develop a 60,000-seater stadium on the 39-acre site was rejected along with 13 others. SP Setia and Sime Darby have agreed to pay £400 million for the site and will have to build a new underground station as part of their scheme.
Worryingly, on 11th June 2012, however, Liew Kee Sin, chief executive of SP Setia, stated:
“We don’t know what will happen over the next 28 days.”
Though Knight Frank are incredibly positive about their negotiations, one must ask: “Will progress really occur with this scheme or will this just be yet another white elephant?”
For further information about the sale, contact Stephan Miles-Brown of Knight Frank on: +44 (0) 20 7861 5403. Information can be viewed at: http://search.knightfrank.com/gb0412
This Liverpudlian sex-swap pioneer was the first British person to be outed as a transsexual in 1961. Ashley endured electric shock treatment and painful surgery but this didn’t stop her becoming a successful fashion model who appeared in such titles as Vogue. A marriage to the Hon. Arthur Corbett was brief but alleged affairs with Michael Hutchene, Sir Peter O’Toole, Grayson Perry and Omar Sharif are well documented. A true wildcard, Ashley now spends her time campaigning for social equality and lives in Fulham.
A German who used many aliases but whose biggest pretence was to give the impression he was a member of the Rockefeller family. The Man in the Rockefeller Suit gives the best account of his exploits but it is for the 2009 parental kidnapping of his child, Reigh Storrow “Snooks” Mills Boss, by a Harvard graduate named Sandra Boss that he is best known. Jailed for four to five years after being convicted for kidnap, he was subsequently also charged with the 1985 murder of a Californian man named Jonathan Sohus. Whilst this fantasist of the first order rots in the clink, his former wife has built a new life in Knightsbridge, London.
Ibstone House at Ibstone in Buckinghamshire has recently come to the market at a price of offers in excess of £15 million. Now owned by Ariadne “Ari” Getty Williams, the daughter of Paul Getty and Abigail Harris, Ibstone has also been home to Sun City tycoon Sol Kerzner, who is currently divorcing his wife Heather. This Grade II listed house is situated in the Chiltern Hills and was originally built in the late 18th century.
Ibstone House, Ibstone, Near High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, HP14 3YAA reception room at Ibstone HouseThe house’s swimming poolAn aerial view of the estate
Arranged over three floors and including an extensive leisure and entertaining complex, the property includes 6 principal reception rooms, 7 bedrooms and an indoor pool. A 2-bedroom lodge cottage and large barn stand in the 79-acre grounds that also include gardens designed by Lady Arabella Lennox-Boyd.
Dame Rebecca West, described by TIME Magazine as being “indisputably the world’s number one writer” in 1947, purchased Ibstone House in the late 1930s and lived there with her banker husband Henry Maxwell Andrews.
Dame Rebecca West DBE (1892 – 1983)
West, who had affairs with H. G. Wells, Charlie Chaplin and Lord Beaverbrook, used the grounds of the house as a small dairy farm and also housed Yugoslav refugees in the blacked out spare rooms of the manor during the Second World War. After the death of her husband, she sold up and moved to an apartment next to the Iranian Embassy in Prince’s Gate, London. During the 1980 siege there, aged 87, she had to be evacuated.
Solomon “Sol” and Heather Kerzner
Kerzner, who has been married four times to Kerzner and tragically lost his son, Butch, in a helicopter crash, has homes around the world and both he and his wife blamed the breakdown of their marriage on his workaholic lifestyle.
Of divorcing her husband, Heather Kerzner commented:
“He’s a hugely important person to myself and my children. I have only positive things to say about him. He’s the most influential person in my life – and that’s worth a lot. He’s one of the world’s most incredible men, he has shown me a different world and we had an incredible life together but sometimes I guess it just doesn’t work out.”
Some time ago the Kerzners sold Ibstone House to Ms. Getty but now she too has decided to sell up. Though best known because of her family name, Aridane Getty has run the Fuserna Foundation since 2005 and is considered a great philanthropist in her own right.
It’ll be fascinating to see what chapter opens next for this magnificent house.
For more information contact Stephen Christie-Miller of Savills on +44 (0) 1491 843000. To download a brochure for Ibstone House go to: http://residentialsearch.savills.co.uk/property-detail/333522/list
For more details on the Fuserna Foundation, go to: http://fusernafoundation.org
A descendant of the Aga Khan and the grandson of Rita Heyworth. Gregarious and witty Embiricos was passionate about flying and worked for Virgin Atlantic. His departure came far too soon.
This British actress is best known for playing Joy Adamson in the true-life film Born Free alongside her real-life husband, Bill Travers (1957 – 1994). She’s also starred in the Ring of Bright Water, The Camomile Lawn and Swallows and Amazons but it is for her work as a wildlife campaigner that McKenna is best known. She co-founded the Born Free Foundation in 1991 with her husband and along with Ace Bourke and John Rendall helped release Christian, a lion who lived at World’s End in Chelsea, into the wild in Africa. His story has since become one of YouTube’s biggest hits.
In recent days, Gary Barlow’s albumn Sing has topped the UK album charts with sales of 40,000 copies.
Two hundred and ten musicians, including the African Children’s Choir and the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force Band, helped record this special tribute to The Queen. Produced by Barlow with the assistance of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Gareth Malone, Sing also features Prince Harry on the tambourine, Hayley Westenra, Alfie Boe and the Military Wives choir. Sing will be performed this evening at a special concert at Buckingham Palace in the presence of Her Majesty.
Another tribute I was alerted to came from a singer named Anton Lorien who contacted me via Twitter. He was approached in 2011 by the British Monarchist League who asked him to produce a song for a lady he describes as having: “Given her life selflessly to the people of Britain and the Commonwealth.”
Mr Lorien’s song, Like A Diamond, is available to download on iTunes but I wholeheartedly recommend that you watch the video clip available above. It contains some wonderful footage of The Queen and the clip at 3:33 where our Monarch runs to watch her racehorse is especially worth seeing.
Gary Barlow pictured with Prince Harry on the tambourine working on Sing
Both Sing and Like A Diamond capture the feelings of our nation brilliantly. Be sure to sing along tonight.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II governed as constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states and headed the 54-member Commonwealth of Nations. Supported by her gaffe prone husband, “Brenda,” as Private Eye nicknamed her, served steadfast through good times and bad. She liked to drive a little quickly when given control of the wheel of a Range Rover and also found washing up relaxing. This monarch like no other will never be forgotten.
