ALEXANDRA SHULMAN'S NOTEBOOK: A degree in nature? Well it's certainly better than anthropology
Amid talk of culling what are described as 'Mickey Mouse' degrees, none of us can tell what form of knowledge will stand in good stead in years to come. In fact, perhaps we should be expanding the choice of education.
An example: Last weekend I stayed with friends in the barn they have lovingly restored in Devon, complete with babbling brook, wildflower meadows, roaming cows happily munching grass and woodpeckers dangling from bird-feeders.
At every turn, my hosts' expertise shimmered. They could identify every birdsong, name every flower, explain the intricacies of stonewall building – all complete mysteries to us urbanites. They don't have degrees in horticulture or agriculture but have taught themselves a huge amount about the natural world.
It made me and my partner realise, not for the first time, that we could never live in the countryside. There's not one iota of country-living in our skill set. While we are pretty clued up on the DCMS, we have zero acquaintance with labyrinthine ways of Defra.
It was news to me that migrant swallows have already made their return to our shores whereas most swifts haven't yet arrived. Or that rhododendrons, which I think of as sumptuous displays of late-spring flowers, are rampant trespassers.
It made me and my partner realise, not for the first time, that we could never live in the countryside. There's not one iota of country-living in our skill set (stock image)
If there was a college degree in all things nature, what a pleasurable knowledge it would be to have throughout life. Certainly as useful as those PPE courses beloved of politicians. Or, indeed, the social anthropology I studied – now just dimly remembered from lessons about the kinship systems of the Nuer people along the River Nile – which has never been the slightest use over the years since.
Driver who gave Rishi short shrift
Who says appearances don't matter? An Iranian taxi driver picked us up in Devon last week. He came to Britain in 1971 with the Iranian navy and happily settled here. He has never voted, never intends to, and has no time for politicians.
However, his most passionate critique was expounded on Rishi Sunak. 'His sleeves are too short. His trousers are too short. He is too short. He should be a mini van driver – not Prime Minister!' he exploded, before expanding on the virtues of Ayatollah Khomeini and Vladimir Putin, the latter only an inch taller than our PM.
The teens with a Cannes-do attitude
What could be a more desirable accessory than a gorgeous teenage daughter?
Sienna Miller showed off daughter Marlowe on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival; Sofia Coppola stood alongside Romy and Cosima to launch her father's new movie, while Kate and Lila Moss bask in the reflected glory of each other at every opportunity.
Sienna Miller and her daughter Marlowe Sturridge at the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival
It's often thought that women find it difficult watching a daughter turn into a more youthful version of themselves.
But, in reality, nothing can make them appear more attractive than generously sharing the spotlight with the new generation.
There won't be any festivals left soon
Surely the tide will turn against all those institutions that cave in under pressure about their choice of sponsor. The Hay Festival, one of the biggest literary events in the world, has just dropped finance firm Baillie Gifford, its main funder, after a fringe environmental group objected to the minuscule amount of the firm's investments in fossil fuels. Edinburgh Book Festival has now followed suit.
If things continue along this path and every sponsor is jettisoned for any trace of investments that somebody doesn't agree with, there'll ultimately be no events where writers and artists can promote their work. It would be a world with far fewer exhibitions and diminished national galleries. And it would be even more difficult for up-and-coming creatives to gain any kind of visibility.
Big-name signatories such as writers Sally Rooney and Naomi Klein are successful enough not to require the exposure that an artistic jamboree such as Hay affords, but there are countless small names who not only hope to sell some books there, but enjoy talking about the works that have taken them years to write and some people may ultimately buy.
Is Gareth really a fan of cashmere cardis?
Just when the Election campaign was getting a bit dull, along comes Cardi-gate to rescue us. When GQ magazine photographed Gareth Southgate in a wildly expensive Loro Piana cardigan, out went the cry: 'Can it be true that Southgate has ditched his famous M&S waistcoats for a cardi?!'
Of course he hasn't. I would bet a substantial sum that when we see the England manager on the touchline during this month's Euros, he won't be wearing a cardigan – and not one from Loro Piana.
When GQ magazine photographed Gareth Southgate in a wildly expensive Loro Piana cardigan, out went the cry: 'Can it be true that Southgate has ditched his famous M&S waistcoats for a cardi?!'
Magazines style their subjects to look the way their fashion editors would like to see them and to provoke comment. GQ will have been pandering to its advertisers when it togged Southgate up in the caramel cashmere favoured by billionaires, and reckoned that by making him look more like a habituee of the exclusive Gstaad Eagle Club than a football manager, the pictures would get talked about.
They absolutely would not have front of mind how Gareth's beige-on-beige look would go down on the terraces.
Sad demise of my father's old paper
I feel soppily nostalgic about the London's Evening Standard stopping daily publication. It had been the backdrop to so much of my life, as my father was its theatre critic for 38 years.
Lunching with two veteran journalists, they recalled the days when London's two evening papers, the Standard and the News, shared newsstands. When the flat-capped vendors saw a potential customer approach, they made a mental calculation which class they were from: the Standard was the posh paper and the News was more working class. Rarely did they call it wrong.
