EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Duchess of Bedford becomes New Zealand citizen at the age of ... trends now

Her beauty propelled her into Country Life magazine as one of its 'girls in pearls' and to the threshold of a film career, only for her to renounce 'lights, camera, action!' in favour of marrying the future 14th Duke of Bedford, owner of Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, with its 24 priceless Canalettos, not to mention a safari park.

But, now aged 84, the Dowager Duchess of Bedford has undertaken her latest transformation. Henrietta's become a Kiwi — taking New Zealand citizenship.

The Duchess found the initiation ceremony a particular pleasure. 'I didn't realise I was going to have to pay allegiance to King Charles,' she says. 'Such a lovely feeling.'

Explaining her reasons for emigrating, she says: 'It feels like England used to. England doesn't feel like it used to when I was a child.'

As a debutante in 1957, her parents held a party for her at Claridge's in a room transformed into a nightclub, its walls studded with silk butterflies.

Not, perhaps, quite what the Duchess was referring to.

It's just as well that Abbey Clancy and the ex-England footballer Peter Crouch can afford airlines' excess luggage fees.

When the Liverpudlian model, 38, and her husband, who have four children, were asked if they had any plans for the next fortnight after returning from a recent holiday in Dubai, he turned to his wife and asked: 'You're just going to unpack, aren't you, for another two weeks?'

Evergreen Dame Joanna Lumley is fed up with the poor lighting in hotel bathrooms.

'What women hate is a top light in the bathroom because you can't do your make-up,' wails the 78-year-old star of Absolutely Fabulous and The New Avengers. 

'So sometimes I come out looking a bit weird because I've either been doing make-up by candlelight or torchlight — it's interesting and a challenge.'

Dame Joanna adds of her television appearances: 'I am very grateful to viewers who say good things even when I am a bit crumpled.'

Following her father into comedy was always going to be a challenge for John Cleese's daughter Camilla, but now she's trying to use it to her advantage.

'She's written a sitcom called Nepo Baby,' reveals the Monty Python star, 84. 'It's very funny.' 

The term 'nepo baby' refers to children of famous people deemed to have used their family connections to succeed in careers similar to those of their parents.

Who says there's no money in writing books these days?

Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl On The Train, has managed to amass £18.5 million.

Newly published figures for her company, Paula Hawkins Ltd, into which she channels her earnings, reveal she snapped up £320,000 worth of art works

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