As one of the country’s most celebrated landscape gardeners, Randle Siddeley is used to delivering perfection.
But when it comes to booking holidays, he’s been left infuriated that others don’t share his attention to detail.
Siddeley, the 4th Lord Kenilworth, bought a £2,300 all-inclusive holiday for his wife, Kayo Takauchi, and her daughter Jasmine, 32, through Lastminute.com. It turned out to be the stuff of nightmares.
The package was advertised as a four-night stay in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, but the flights were to Hurghada, on the opposite shore of the Gulf of Suez. Reaching their hotel would involve a ten-hour, 500-mile drive.
When Lady Kenilworth and Jasmine realised, it was too late. ‘Panic set in,’ Lord Kenilworth tells me. ‘They got dumped at the airport, 11 o’clock at night, two women in a foreign country where they don’t speak the language.’
As one of the country’s most celebrated landscape gardeners, Randle Siddeley (pictured) is used to delivering perfection. But when it comes to booking holidays, he’s been left infuriated that others don’t share his attention to detail
Siddeley, the 4th Lord Kenilworth, bought a £2,300 all-inclusive holiday for his wife, Kayo Takauchi, and her daughter Jasmine, 32, through Lastminute.com. It turned out to be the stuff of nightmares (pictured: beach near Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt)
The package booked with lastminute.com was advertised as a four-night stay in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt , but the flights were to Hurghada, on the opposite shore of the Gulf of Suez. Reaching their hotel would involve a ten-hour, 500-mile drive
When they tried to transfer to a hotel in the same chain, near Hurghada, Lastminute.com said it was unable to do so because the cancellation window had expired.
‘I sent two emails to Lastminute and I’ve heard absolutely nothing,’ Kenilworth says. ‘I can’t believe that any tour operator should be allowed to behave in that kind of manner. They’ve basically ruined their holiday, so they should pay.’
His wife and her daughter, he adds, ‘are completely and utterly exhausted by the whole experience. Never, ever go Lastminute.com.’
Kenilworth, 70, has been married four times. His first wife was dental hygienist Kim Serfontein; his second was society jeweller Kiki McDonough; his third was Canadian charity boss Catherine Bachand.
Lastminute.com declined to comment.
Will Marina land a place at King’s club?
With her tumbling blonde hair, and a motto of ‘Eat, sleep, fish’, Marina Gibson has helped make fly-fishing fashionable and is even said to have inspired David Beckham to hold his rod correctly.
Now, she may be about to celebrate her most satisfying catch.
I hear that the Flyfishers’ Club, whose patron is King Charles, is to hold a vote today on allowing women to join, after pressure from Marina. Currently, it doesn’t even let women have lunch at the Mayfair club.
‘Members are expected to vote for the change,’ says my man with the flies, hooks and parrs.
Marina, 33, is not a politically correct type. She complained when the BBC started using the ghastly term ‘fisher-people’ on its flagship Today programme.
‘I am not a ‘fishing-person’,’ she told me. ‘It’s such a ridiculous term. What’s wrong with ‘fisherman’? The word doesn’t have to mean only men. You can call me an angler, if you like, but never a ‘fisher-person’.’
Or you might end up battered.
With her tumbling blonde hair, and a motto of ‘Eat, sleep, fish’, Marina Gibson (pictured) has helped make fly-fishing fashionable and is even said to have inspired David Beckham to hold his rod correctly
Queen’s niece joins New York fashion posse
Yeehaw! Queen Camilla’s niece Ayesha Shand made an eye-catching entrance at New York Fashion Week.
The daughter of the Queen’s brother, the late conservationist Mark Shand, wore a cream cowgirl hat and a blue leather dress for the Jonathan Cohen studio catwalk show.
‘Fashion darling,’ Shand, 29, jokes online.
She works at the Hauser & Wirth art gallery in New York – her father died in the city after a fall in 2014 aged 62.
She moved to the Big Apple last year to work in the art hub’s offices. Princess Eugenie is a director of Hauser & Wirth.
Yeehaw! Queen Camilla ‘s niece Ayesha Shand made an eye-catching entrance at New York Fashion Week
Eve Graham making a comeback
Eve Graham, of Seventies supergroup The New Seekers, is making a comeback at the age of 81.
The I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing star will play a gig in Scotland in December. ‘I haven’t even sung around the house in six years,’ she tells me.
‘I went to Club 83 in Dundee a few weeks ago, and got chatting to the band there and thought, ‘Why not?’ Even if it kills me or I make a fool of myself!’
Eve Graham (top centre), of Seventies supergroup The New Seekers, is making a comeback at the age of 81
Bring back power dressing, says Joan
Dame Joan Collins says she and her husband Percy Gibson are publicly mocked for their smart dress sense.
Admitting that she preferred how people dressed up more in her Dynasty days, the actress says: ‘Sometimes I get mocked for it [dressing up].
‘Percy and I will get into an elevator somewhere and we’ll be wearing blazers, shirts and chinos, and I’ll be wearing a straw hat and people get in, look us up and down and say [disparagingly], “Ooh, you’re so dressed up”.’
She recalls of the 1980s: ‘If you look at women in newsreels back then, they’re all very well-dressed, they all have very good hair… and they seem to care, you know?’
Dame Joan Collins (right) says she and her husband Percy Gibson (left) are publicly mocked for their smart dress sense
Dame Edna creator ‘hurt’ over name being stripped from award
Dame Edna creator Barry Humphries was ‘incredibly hurt’ that his name was stripped from a comedy award in , says his friend David Walliams.
‘Why expect a man in his 80s to have the same opinions as people 50 years younger?’ Walliams asks.
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival removed his name from its Barry Award in 2019 after he described being trans as ‘a fashion’.
Humphries died last year aged 89.
Dame Edna creator Barry Humphries (pictured) was ‘incredibly hurt’ that his name was stripped from a comedy award in , says his friend David Walliams
Si King appeals for help finding pal’s stolen bike
Hairy Bikers star Si King is appealing for help in finding a pal’s stolen motorcycle. ‘A very special bike has been stolen from a good friend,’ explains the TV cook.
His pal rode the motorcycle, a Royal Enfield Himalayan, from London to Cumbria in June to celebrate the life of King’s co-star, Dave Myers, who died in February aged 66.
‘If you can find it in yourselves to bring it back, I’d be grateful,’ King pleads. ‘I have to confess, I’ve taken it personally.’
Hairy Bikers star Si King (pictured) is appealing for help in finding a pal’s stolen motorcycle. ‘A very special bike has been stolen from a good friend,’ explains the TV cook
Sting’s still snappy
Sting has joined forces with Billy Joel for a double-bill tour. But their friendship has its limits.
‘We share a backstage. I’m always in there borrowing something,’ Sting says. ‘He wanted to wear one of my suits but I said, “No”.’
Joel had his eye on a shiny silver number.
‘It was made for me in 1978 for (Who film) Quadrophenia, and it still fits me. That’s vanity for you.’
Sting (left) has joined forces with Billy Joel (right) for a double-bill tour