Tatler UK - 10.2019

Adwoa Aboah Model gurrrl, whose

forbears include the Earls of Lonsdale.

Marina Hyde Card-carrying Guardianista

who’s a baronet’s daughter.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge Raised in Ealing,

but bona fide landed gentry.

Al Murray Aka The Pub Landlord,

he’s in remainder to the barony

of Strange and the dukedom of Atholl.

Andrew Murray Corbyn adviser whose

banker father was Slains Pursuivant,

the top Scottish heraldic office.

NEVER HAVE THE TREACHEROUS

sands of London Society been more fraught

for those endeavouring to clamber up and up

the scale. Take Yana Peel, who for three shimmer-

ing summers reigned supreme as the CEO of

the Serpentine Gallery, graciously donning her

plastic gloves to greet the glamorous, the

sycophantic and the social mountaineers to

that apogee of FOMO, the Serpentine

Summer Party. Marchionesses, models and

mountebanks fawned at her feet, desperate for

a (not paid for) ticket until, unhappily, she

resigned in May. Nothing forces submission

these days like financial links to a deeply

unwoke Israeli spyware system. Alas, poor

Yana, I knew her well...

But if, like Yana, you think that social

mobility means table-hopping at Scott’s in

London, Cinquante Cinq at St Tropez, or

Maya’s on St Barths, you’re wrong: it means

getting a fair chance of moving up in the

world, even if you never went to Eton. And

the chattering classes say it’s never been more

difficult – hence Oxbridge mooting privi-

leged-background checks and lower entrance

criteria for those looking to work their way up.

But just cast an eye on today’s Society and

you’ll soon see how high the underprivileged

have soared. Not to mention those who pretend

to be less grand than they really are – take a

bow, Seumas Milne, the ex-Wykehamist who

really runs the Labour Party. (And don’t take a

bow, Rhodri Philipps, 4th Viscount St Davids,

who’s thrice been declared bankrupt and land-

ed in the slammer for sending racially aggra-

vated threats to anti-Brexiteer Gina Miller.)

Equally, don’t, like The Reluctant Debutante,

be deluded into thinking some comely young

shop assistant is a penniless peasant: it could be

the dashing Orson Fry, son of Amanda Aspinall,

who has been dating Alexa Chung while juggling

waiting tables in Shoreditch with playing in his

hip new band.

Grand, perhaps – but not as grand

as Tatler’s top ten social risers.

1. The Duchess of Sussex
   The pinnacle of the greasy pole.
   Not quite a rags to riches
   tale (she was privately educated
   and her scapegrace father won
   an Emmy for lighting direction)
   but the Ralph & Russo-clad
   beacon of change has found a
   role that suits her to perfection:
   a tungsten toughie to drag
   the Royal Family into the
   21st century.


2. The Rt Hon John Bercow MP
   Notoriously fond of taxis, perhaps
   because his dad drove one. Now
   so great (if not so good), some
   wonder if he’ll ever relinquish his
   Commons speakership.


3. Jerry Hall
   The shift from violent, alcoholic
   trucker dad in Texas to dating Bryan
   Ferry and Mick Jagger was capped
   by marrying billionaire media
   magnate Rupert Murdoch.

PHOTOGRAPHS: GETTY IMAGES; SHUTTERSTOCK

Closet toffs about town

Tatler October 2019 tatler.com

A-list ascents

From top, Al Murray,

Adwoa Aboah &

Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Yana Peel

Ride high with the new

models of social mobility

Up

On the

4. Keith Tyson
   Left school at 15, won the Turner
   Prize at 32, and wed Rupert
   Murdoch’s daughter, Elizabeth, at


5. Should rub along well with his
   stepmother-in-law (see no. 3).


6. Sharon White
   From Leyton comp to Cambridge,
   Downing Street, and Chief Exec
   of Ofcom. Tipped as the next BoE
   Governor; for now the far more
   important Chair of John Lewis.


7. Loretta Basey
   After her split from Steve Coogan
   and fall into the warm embrace
   of Nat Rothschild, The Sun asked:
   ‘Why is this young and beautiful
   Page 3 girl from suburbia
   marrying a middle-aged
   Bullingdon billionaire?’ Quite.


8. Jamie Redknapp
   He shoots, he scores. Former
   England midfielder (and son of
   our ’Arry), the footballer now
   plays in the highest social
   divisions – ask Jemima Khan.


9. Richard Caring
   Watch the birdie: from 16-year-old
   office boy and aspirant pro golfer
   to Annabel’s and Sexy Fish.
   Arise, the new king of Mayfair.


10. Teddy Williams
    From the loins of her UFO-mad,
    ex-boyband member father
    Robbie, six-year-old Teddy was
    Princess Eugenie’s flower girl.
    Angelic: the world’s her oyster.


11. Kent Adonai
    For 20 years, Kent served the
    ultra-capricious Colin Tennant –
    the man behind Mustique – and is
    said to have been left £20 million
    for his pains. One to watch.

From left,

Jamie Redknapp,

The Duchess of

Sussex, Jerry Hall,

& Richard Caring

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