Princess Anne shares the same disdain for birthdays as her late father. 'Just another day' is their shared motto. So it's no surprise that when she gathered her charities together at Buck House last week, she told them she wanted no fuss as her 75th birthday approaches in August. While she may avoid a glittering birthday ball at the palace, she won't get her way completely. A source reports that son-in-law Mike Tindall has plans for a grand bash in the luxurious party barn he and Zara designed on the Gatcombe Park estate. The Tindalls live in the grounds of teetotal Anne's countryside retreat, so at least she can slip away before Mike's infamous party games begin.
The King's absence from the Derby - he has now missed three during his reign - is being blamed for the record low attendance of 22,312. A Jockey Club mole whispers that a formal dress code, including morning dress and top hats, adds to the occasion, but only if there are royals present to give the event kudos. With the King having struck the Derby from his social calendar, it has lost a lot of its lustre as a place to be seen. By contrast, at Royal Ascot next week there will be upwards of 300,000 attending over five days, with the King, Queen and other royals present throughout.
Comedian Jack Dee, dogsitting his daughter Phoebe's hound Nelly, says: 'She'll start barking at anything on the telly. She's got a celebrity crush, Nelly has. She's rather fallen for Kirstie Allsopp. When Kirstie came on she’s absolutely transfixed.' If Kirstie, 53, pictured, finds she’s barking up the wrong tree selling houses on the TV, might she make a career of dog-whispering?
Was BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson ever on Freddie Forsyth's Christmas card list? Hardly, as he reveals that in 1967 he was the junior BBC sub-editor who spotted how foreign correspondent Freddie was introducing Biafran propaganda into his dispatches from the Nigerian civil war. 'I told my boss,' tweets apple-polisher Simpson, 80. 'Forsyth was sacked - and went on to write one of the best thrillers ever.'
Trainer Peter Easterby, who has died at 95, had the saddest day of his career when his 1979 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Alverton was killed in the Grand National two weeks later. He recalled: 'For the next four or five years, when I got to Aintree there was a telegram waiting for me in the weighing room placing a curse on me for having run him.'
New Reform chairman Dr David Bull, formerly of Most Haunted Live!, tells ITV's Good Morning Britain of his encounter with a medium, who warned: 'You didn't come here alone. Your grandmother is with you.' Adds Bull, 56: 'He changed facially and started to channel her... then he jumped on me and tried to strangle me!' Fingers crossed there'll be no throttling when he falls out with Nigel.