SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE: Longleat heir follows in his (very) liberal father's tracks by donating £15,000 to Jo Swinson's election campaign

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The Viscount Weymouth Ceawlin Thynn at Longleat House with his wife Emma

Viscount Weymouth has not always seen eye to eye with his father, the colourful Marquess of Bath, known as the Loins of Longleat for his collection of 'wifelets'.

He memorably infuriated him when he was just 16 by leaving his comprehensive school and dipping into his trust fund to be privately educated at Bedales.

But politically father and son are one, as I can reveal Ceawlin Thynne, heir to the 10,000-acre Longleat estate and Safari Park in Wiltshire, has made a financial donation to the Liberal Democrat election campaign.

His 87-year-old father is no doubt delighted. 

He was a Lib Dem peer until he was booted out of the reformed Upper Chamber.

Ceawlin, 45, wrote a cheque for £15,000 having been persuaded by none other than his Tory turncoat chum Dr Phillip Lee.

Dr Lee, 49, was the first government minister to quit over Brexit last year and defected to the Lib Dems in September. 

The 85-year-old Marquess of Bath (pictured), known as the Loins of Longleat for his collection of 'wifelets', was a Lib Dem peer until he was booted out of the reformed Upper Chamber

His local Conservative Association in Bracknell had passed a vote of no confidence and he swiftly brokered a deal with Weymouth to bolster the Lib Dem party coffers.

'I have known Ceawlin and [his wife] Emma for a few years,' Dr Lee tells me.

'We met at a dinner and discovered that we both agreed there should be a People's Vote. His donation is particularly generous.'

Lady Weymouth (pictured on the show) was voted off of Strictly Coming Dancing last week

Lee is now standing as the candidate for Wokingham, which Tory maverick Sir John Redwood has represented for the past 32 years, most recently with an 18,000 majority.

'A recent poll puts the Lib Dems just three points behind,' warns Lee, a Strictly Come Dancing fan.

'My daughter and I were rooting for Emma during the contest,' he adds. 

'Politics is just like Strictly — anything can happen.'

As Lady Weymouth, who was voted off the show last week, can attest.

Ex Spice Girl Geri Horner (pictured) is hoping to re-write her legacy as she prepares to launch herself as a novelist

I Wannabe known as a writer, says Ginger Spice 

Formerly a member of the best-selling girl group of all time, ex Spice Girl Geri Horner is hoping to re-write her legacy as she prepares to launch herself as a novelist.

'I'm in the middle of finishing my novel. It's been like climbing Everest,' she tells me at the 50th anniversary party of upmarket watch company TAG Heuer Monaco at Chucs Cafe Serpentine in Kensington.

'It's taken me four years and I'm coming to the end of it now. I want to be remembered as a writer.'

The 47-year-old mother of two, who married Christian Horner, the boss of the Red Bull Racing Formula One team, in 2015, adds: 'I've done children's literature before, but it was short. This is an actual novel.'

'The best time for me to write is in the morning, but sometimes I get surges of energy late at night, which really annoys my husband.' 

Middleton's Loch Ness menagerie 

James Middleton has shared his first 'family photo' of himself with his fiancee and dogs, thanking his friends for their support during his battle with depression.

In an emotional message, the Duchess of Cambridge's 32-year-old brother, who proposed to French-born financier Alizee Thevenet, 30, last month, declared: 'Today I wanted to say thank you for the incredible support shown towards my speaking publicly about my illness. Depression.'

Holding a mug of tea and beaming with bride-to-be Alizee, the entrepreneur is pictured with three of his five black spaniels and golden retriever Mabel near Glen Affric Lodge next to Loch Ness.

James Middleton has shared his first 'family photo' of himself with his fiancee and dogs (above), thanking his friends for their support during his battle with depression

He says that it is the first time he has truly smiled in years. 

'Not that long ago I had forgotten what it was like to laugh with genuine happiness — today I don't have to pretend to smile.

'I am not cured from depression, I don't think there is one.

'However, I have learnt the tools to keep control, every day I look after my mental health as much as I do my physical health.

'And remember as one wise person once said, "Life is about the journey, not the destination".'

Cartoonist Gerald Scarfe is nostalgic after relocating to Kew with wife Jane Asher.

'I lived in Chelsea for 55 years so it was a bit of a shock,' he tells me.

'I do miss it. I remember Jimi Hendrix walking down the road and I saw the other day that Bob Marley had a plaque on the next street where we used to live. 

'It was like that in the 60s, along with the markets selling meats and fish. But now they are selling jeans and T-shirts so it was a good time to leave.'

Tatler cover girl Sabrina Percy (pictured) says that 40 is the perfect age to have a baby

Tatler star Sabrina: 40's the perfect age to have a baby

Tatler cover girl Sabrina Percy finds common ground with Harry Potter star Emma Watson, who this week decried the pressure on women to settle down by a certain age.

'As a society we make 30 for women mean something more than it is,' Sabrina tells me.

'You have to get married, have babies, buy a house. You're not supposed to act like a kid any more.'

Illustrator Sabrina, who turns 30 in February and whose boyfriend is businessman Phineas Page, adds: 'The medical community says you're a geriatric mum post-35.

'I've been focusing on my career and I don't want kids until I'm about 40.'

F1's Natalie told to put the brakes on flirting at awards 

Formula One Sky Sports presenter Natalie Pinkham has received strict instructions not to misbehave with former Grand Prix racer David Coulthard.

'I'm doing the Grocery Awards with John Inverdale this week. Sportspeople will come on stage and we interview them,' she tells me. 

'The two that I've been given are Zara [Phillips] and David Coulthard. They said: "Will you be all right with Zara?" And I said, "Yeah, yeah. I'll be fine with David as well."

'And then they said: "Can you not be too risque?" They had to do this whole thing about please don't be too naughty. He's quite naughty.' 

Prince Charles's goddaughter India Hicks reveals she sleeps more and is more involved in her children's lives since closing down her luxury lifestyle brand six months ago.

'It's been quite an adjustment, no longer organising, producing, partnering, pushing, pulling, doing,' she explains.

'I was a wobbly-exhausted-crazy-person, but blindly believing I could right the wrongs of our company trumped everything.

'These past months I have slept again and even made it to a PTA [Parent Teacher Association] meeting.

'The child had to remind me not only who his teacher was but what bloody year he was in.'

Soprano Laura Wright, who sang at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, recently passed out on a train with a virus. 'I don't remember anything,' the 29-year-old, who is expecting a child with rugby star husband Harry Rowland, tells me. 

'When I opened up my eyes, this lovely man I didn't know was there and he thought I had MS, because he had MS, and he thought I was having an episode.

'I came round and burst into tears.'