Dame Mary Beard, who called Boris a dictator, and ex-mistress Petronella Wyatt, who claimed the classicist was wrong about Cincinnatus, engaged in a Twitter spat.
Petronella Wyatt said: “Cincinnatus was not a dictator in the modern sense, and he did go back to his farm after being recalled to Rome to deal with a temporary emergency.”
A decade or so after his “return to the plough,” Beard said, “He did truly come back to put down a popular revolt. I believe his first 15-day “dictatorship” session was.
The second took, I believe, 21 days to put an end to the rebellion of the people. And what about Petsy’s last swipe? Not a lengthy period of “dictatorship.”
In contrast to the appointment of four privy counsellors in the same room in the 1960s, the goodbye to Boris and inauguration of Liz as the next prime minister took place in the Queen’s Balmoral drawing room without incident.
According to royal historian Hugo Vickers, “They knelt on the wrong side of the chamber, and [the cabinet secretary] Sir Edward Bridges had to signal their error.”
They continued to crawl around the room on their hands and knees, knocking a book off the table, from which the Queen, who was visibly enraged, had to save it. Later, she admitted that she had been struggling to contain her laughter.
He claims that she is engaging in “a middle class filling in of silence” by saying, “I don’t think I’ll be wearing that down to the fish ‘n’ chip store!” Fiona Bruce will then respond, “I don’t think I’ll be wearing that down to the fish ‘n’ chip shop.”
Everyone in the room laughs hysterically and declares, “That’s it, life is okay,” to which they add, “Antiques Roadshow is the spiritual home of laughing at things that aren’t funny!”
What was the response in France to Liz’s election? She reruns her iconic “We import two thirds of our cheese” conference tape on Quotidien, France’s hippest and most powerful political TV programme. Cut to presenter Yann Barthes, who is perplexed: “Well, of course you do.” We have superior cheese.”
Journalist Rachel Sylvester discusses how she sought help from fellow Telegraph columnist Boris when she first began writing on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
We discussed my concept and had a drink at the pub. A couple or three days later, my piece was due. The following morning, when I opened the paper, Boris had written my idea absolutely brilliantly. He probably believed it was his idea. It was as ruthless, brilliant, and thoughtless as usual.
When his client Mike Todd perished in a 1958 aircraft disaster, US showbiz attorney Bert Fields, who died away at age 93, made an unexpected statement. He told Variety that in his opinion, it was a beautiful moment to pass away.
He was married to Elizabeth Taylor, the most beautiful woman in the world, and had just won an Academy Award for Around the World in 80 Days. What a way to go out, boy!