Do you believe there’s a spectre at the Speccie?

In today's Diary: Is The Spectator haunted? / Nigel Farage at the club / Wendy Kidd sells up / John Boyega looks for love
Ghost hunter: Spectator editor Fraser Nelson
Dave Benett/Getty Images for The
4 January 2018

The Spectator magazine, while investigating spooky happenings, appears to have stumbled upon a ghostly presence closer to home. Back in December the Right-wing weekly, edited by Fraser Nelson, pictured, asked a series of stars if they had ever heard a convincing ghost story. Now one of its staff reports an inter-office haunting.

A letter in this week’s issue comes from Lucy Childs, the Speccie’s marketing director. “There is in fact a ghost residing in the very building where this magazine is produced,” she writes. “Frank Schuster, a wealthy lover of music and friend of Edward Elgar, lived at 22 Old Queen Street in the early 20th century, hosting parties and socialising. He appeared to be walking towards me on the stairs late one evening, very well-dressed, but he disappeared as I was about to pass him.”

While the apparition was fleeting, the real one liked nothing more than a boisterous knees-up in Old Queen Street with admirals, art critics and artists. And it seems that even in the afterlife he’s lost none of his joie-de-vivre. Well, except for the vivre.

“I’ve only seen him once,” Childs told us this morning. “This ghost was not overly keen on being seen. I got the impression he was pretty pleased to observe and still be a part of something quite social.”

Unluckily for the Speccie’s spectre, Old Queen Street is a more industrious place these days. “I’ve never met the Spectator ghost,” Nelson said today. “But I don’t work as late as Lucy. Personally, I’m a ghost-sceptic. If I ever do see him, I’ll ask him for 1,000 words.”

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Those who love nothing more than a Sunday morning with the papers have felt something of a hole in their lives since the passing of AA Gill last year. Now we hear word of who will replace his Sunday Times TV column: we’re told it’s Camilla Long, the paper’s film critic and a close friend of Gill’s.

Long, whose tongue is almost as sharp as Gill’s was, starts next week. TV execs will surely be trembling in nervous anticipation.

The clubbable Farage blows his cover

A FASCINATING Politico article details London’s private members’ clubs and the politicians who frequent them. As befits their stuffy image of pinstripe suits and ironed newspapers, most seem populated by Tory grandees — you can’t move in White’s or the Sublime Society of Beef Steaks without bumping into a Hugo Swire or Nicholas Soames. But it is Nigel Farage’s experience of the club scene that is most enlightening.

A stalwart of the East India Club, Farage told Politico: “It is a lovely discreet place where you can meet people and are unlikely to finish up in the gossip columns.” Not any more. Sorry.

Quote of the Day

Maverick negotiator: Emily Blunt (Photo by Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage)
WireImage

'I make it a point to not be too concerned with “I hope they think I’m a team player”.’

Actress Emily Blunt says there’s no room for niceties in salary negotiations.

Christmas fun as Finn meets the queens

STAR Wars heart-throb John Boyega is in Nigeria at the moment, and last night went backstage to meet the performers of Fela and the Kalakuta Queens.

London-born Boyega, whose parents are Nigerian, spent Christmas and New Year in Lagos, even surprising fans at a December 25 screening of The Last Jedi. But the trip didn’t all go to plan: “Holiday coming to an end and no wife,” he tweeted yesterday. “I really don’t get it.”

Chin up. The chosen one is out there. Hopefully not in a galaxy far, far away...

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POOR Matt Haig. The award-winning writer, whose book How to Stop Time was a 2017 bestseller, returned to his car earlier this week to find the rear window had been smashed and the vehicle ransacked. The thieves made off with everything... except for a copy of his children’s book The Girl Who Saved Christmas. “This is among my worst reviews ever, I think,” the beleaguered Haig wrote on Twitter. Maybe they just had it on Kindle already?

Island life is not for Kidd

Paradise lost: Wendy Kidd selling up Barbadian hotel (Photo credit should read JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images

THE Caribbean dream is over for Wendy Kidd, mother of ex-model Jodie Kidd, pictured. The baronet’s daughter has built a life and business in Barbados, but she’s selling up after accepting defeat in a fragile economy.

Holders, a 17th-century house built on a former sugar plantation, is for sale. Wendy has spent the past few years running the estate as a bed-and- breakfast and music- festival destination.
It’s perfectly located for anyone in the lap of luxury, with a polo field and a golf course nearby. The listing promises “an impressive range of amenities”, “a sense of privacy unmatched by the more populous developments and resort communities” and matchless views. Price is advertised as available on request.

Wendy’s next steps are unknown but Jodie could use her expertise when it comes to event management: she recently started a business of her own, The Half Moon pub in West Sussex. Could Wendy help out? Mum’s the word.

Tweet of the Day

Former Ukip aide Annabelle Fuller doesn’t approve of Ukip leader Henry Bolton’s reported new beau Jo Marney, a model less than half his age

Good neighbour of the day: Benedict Cumberbatch has cancelled plans to build a giant garden shed at his new house in Dartmouth Park after neighbours complained. That’ll save a Scandal in Bohemia.

Ice and easy does it in the USA

Baby, it’s cold outside. Actor Alan Cumming shows how to have some winter fun during recent celebrations in the frost-bitten US. “This is how I spent my New Year,” he wrote on Instagram. “Throwing cups of hot water into the freezing air and watching it transform into snow and ice!” Who needs fireworks?

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