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Cherie Blair's puppies gave Margaret Thatcher her last smile



When Tony Blair returns home from his next jet-setting round of money-making, he will find there are two extra mouths to fill at his London residence.

Happily, the arrival of two dachshund puppies that his wife Cherie is acquiring will not make much of a dent in his £30 million fortune

But the story behind the new arrivals reveals an intriguing tale of cross-party friendships, the late Baroness Thatcher and a deal sealed at her St Paul’s Cathedral funeral.






Tony and Cherie Blair have bought two of the puppies that brought Baroness Thatcher joy in her last hours





Cherie-shed: It was this video of a litter of puppies that brought Lady Thatcher her 'last smile' - two of which have now moved in with the Blairs

The pups are owned by Carla Powell, spirited wife of Margaret Thatcher’s former private secretary Lord (Charles) Powell, and are the offspring of her sausage dog, Talitha.

But they are no ordinary pooches. They are part of the lively litter which entertained Lady Thatcher in her final hours at her suite in the Ritz Hotel.







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For his very last visit, Lord Powell brought a film of the eight biscuit-coloured puppies, which his wife helped deliver two months ago, on an iPad.


The video, he tells me, drew ‘her last smile’.

But endearing though the puppies undoubtedly are, they are also something of a handful, not least because the Powells already have four adult dogs at their villa outside Rome where Lady Thatcher often used to stay.


This is where Mrs Blair comes in.

According to Lady Powell, Cherie agreed a month ago that she would take two of the litter and during Lady Thatcher’s funeral they spoke again.


‘I had told Cherie about the puppies and then we spoke again at the church and I told her they how they were doing,’ she tells me.

‘She is taking two for her children, Kathryn and Leo who adore dogs.


'I am pleased they are going to Cherie. She is sometimes her own worst enemy but I admire her expertise as a lawyer.’

Carla adds: ‘I have also sent a letter to Pope Benedict to see if he would like one.


'But really I want them to all go to friends.

‘If I give the puppies to Cherie and the children I can stay in touch with them and get regular updates.’

One figure who is mightily relieved is Carla’s husband.

‘With the puppies, which are all in Carla’s bedroom, we have got 14 dogs altogether,’ says Lord Powell.
Why model Lisa is busy as a B


Busy girl: Model Lisa B

After putting their grand country home on the market, you might think the wife of multi-millionaire property developer Anton Bilton could afford to put her elegant feet up — not least because Grade I listed Tyringham Hall has a hefty £18 million price tag.

But model and actress Lisa Barbuscia (better known as Lisa B) tells me she is busier than ever, opening her own furniture warehouse in Ibiza where they moved two years ago to build the house of their dreams.

Bilton, who is worth £140 million, bought neo-classical Tyringham for £2.5 million is 2001 and then spent millions more renovating it.

‘It’s a fantastic place — it looks like a stately home from the outside but feels like a comfortable family house on the inside — and it is great for children,’ mother-of-three Lisa tells me.

‘But then we moved out here and it now seems pointless to keep a house with 32 bedrooms when we are hardly there anymore.’

Says Brooklyn-born Lisa: ‘We moved to Ibiza for the lifestyle and especially the weather.

‘But I did love our big house in Buckinghamshire and I hope it goes to a family who will love it as much as we did.’

The only downside of Ibiza, she says, is the dearth of good, stylish furniture.

‘It is why I had the idea to open my furniture shop, Casa B,’ Lisa explains.
Bath boy's bride splashes out

Seemingly untouched by the stony silence between her fiance, Viscount Weymouth and his father the Marquess of Bath, bride-to-be Emma McQuiston has more pressing matters at hand — the organisation of her big day.

Emma, who will one day become the first black chatelaine of Longleat, tells me she is planning a spectacular bash at the vast Wiltshire mansion in June.

‘It’s not going to be a small wedding; I want to do things in style with 200 guests,’ she says at the opening of the Vogue Festival on the Southbank. Earlier this month I revealed that Lord Bath and his son were no longer speaking in a row over the aristocrat’s racy Kama Sutra murals. However, aspiring chef Emma is determined that nothing — even a family feud — will overshadow the moment she walks down the aisle.

‘I will marry in white and have already chosen my gown which is beautiful,’ she adds. ‘There is even talk of me wearing a family tiara, but I can’t say anything more.’


Unable to attend the funeral on Friday of his good friend Patrick Garland, Prince Charles sent a magnificent bouquet of purple orchids, blush red roses and lilacs to his widow, actress Alexandra Bastedo. In among the flowers was a handwritten two-page letter in which he wrote of his admiration for Garland, a former director of Chichester Festival Theatre.


They shared a love of Shakespeare and their friendship was sealed when Patrick and Alexandra joined Charles and Camilla on a cruise around the Aegean as guests on board Greek billionaire John Latis’s yacht Alexander.

‘Charles has always been so loyal,’ says Alexandra. ‘His was usually the first card to arrive at Christmas. I am very touched.’


After his disastrous 54-day tenure at head of the the BBC — the shortest in the Corporation’ s 90-year history — it is probably fair to say that headhunters were hardly beating at George Entwistle’s door.

But five months after quitting as director-general amid his shambolic handling of the Jimmy Savile and Lord McAlpine scandals, ‘incurious George’ has found himself a new berth. I gather he has just been appointed a trustee of the Public Catalogue Foundation, a charity collating publicly-owned art with strong links to the BBC which Entwistle personally forged when he worked for the Corporation.

A source at the charity confirms Entwistle will receive no salary for his work.

No matter. Entwistle still has his remarkable £450,000 pay-off to see him through.


She's not the first person whose careers advice at school proved wide of the mark, but Olympic rower Katherine Grainger might never have won gold had she followed the path recommended.

‘At 18 I was told I should be a prison warder,’ she says at a House of Lords for fellow athlete David Hemery’s charity, 21st Century Legacy. ‘I did study law at university and it would have been a profession where I made a lot more money — but a lot fewer friends!’

Katherine is still studying, with her PHd thesis on homicide this week. And Carlton Books’ director Piers Murray Hill, who commissioned her autobiography, tells me he is serious about making Katherine a crime writer.
PS...

Paula Milne, writer of TV drama The Politician’s Husband, denies the couple in the show are based on Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper. But Milne says she did observe an uncharacteristic display of tenderness between the pair which influenced her. She says: ‘I was watching Prince William’s wedding and the camera settled on these two. Yvette was talking and he was listening and he looked at her with sheer love. It was so unexpectedly touching as he is so thuggish in the Commons. There was an extraordinary tenderness between them and it reinforced what I was trying to do.’

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