The Sunday Times April 24, 2022 2GN 3NEWS
the Duke of Edinburgh slipped into
the National Theatre to watch the stage
adaptation featuring horse puppets. The
puppet of Joey, manoeuvred by three
actors, was later presented to her during
a private visit to Windsor Castle.
In 2012, during the Diamond Jubilee
river pageant, the puppet appeared on
the roof of the National Theatre, rearing
up in salute as the royal barge sailed past,
to the monarch’s visible delight.
Morpurgo has met the Queen several
times, but their lunch encounter inspired
much of his new book, which is illus-
trated by Michael Foreman. It includes
the recurring motif of an oak tree, which
in the story is the Queen’s “thinkingtree”. She often sits beneath its branches
“to work out what her life was for”.
The oak forms a key part of the Plati-
num Jubilee pageant on June 5, which
will be staged in four acts — For Queen
and Country, The Time of Our Lives,
Let’s Celebrate, and Happy and Glorious
— paying tribute to the monarch and tell-
ing the story of her life and reign through
carnival-style performance.
The 2½-hour, £15 million spectacle
through the streets of central London,
from Parliament Square to Buckingham
Palace, will feature 10,000 performers
and will culminate in the royal family
appearing on the palace balcony. It will
be broadcast live by the BBC and is beingoverseen by Adrian Evans, who directed
the Thames river pageant in 2012.
Evans said: “It’s a once-in-a-genera-
tion opportunity for us to celebrate this
momentous time and say thank you to
the monarch, with people celebrating in
their own idiosyncratic ways.”
The first act, For Queen and Country,
will feature 1,700 marching and mounted
troops, veterans and military bands from
the UK and Commonwealth, with 200
horses from the Household Cavalry and
the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery.
The Time of Our Lives will tell the
story of the Queen’s 70-year reign, chart-
ing changes in culture, fashion, music
and design. A 007 theme will featureJames Bond’s cars and love interests, and
a “wave of nostalgia” will include the
Sinclair C5 electric vehicle from the
1980s and double-decker buses deco-
rated with images associated with the
Queen’s reign and carrying celebrities
from each decade.
Soft-top Land Rovers will also put in an
appearance, alongside Daleks from Doc-
tor Who, jive, lindy-hop and swing danc-
ers, people doing the Lambeth walk and
performers on space hoppers and pogo
sticks. Evans said: “I hope the Queen
looks at the decades piece and there are
smiles of recognition, like flicking
through the family album.”
Let’s Celebrate will feature more than2,500 performers acting 12 “chapters” of
the Queen’s life, with nods to her love of
horses and Corgis, and depictions of key
moments and achievements from her
reign, including the coronation, previous
jubilees and the Commonwealth.
It will also feature a giant model rep-
lica of Morpurgo’s oak tree on a float, rep-
resenting Britishness and stability, with
maypole dancers performing from rib-
bons that form a picture of the Queen
when pulled together. “It should be an
extraordinary image,” said Evans, who
revealed there would also be a tribute to
Prince Philip. “I think we’ve got him in a
beautiful way.”
Details of the fourth act, Happy and
Glorious, remain a secret, but it will
feature thousands of performers, includ-
ing choirs and stunts on stages in front of
Buckingham Palace. About 25,000 mem-
bers of the public will move down the
Mall to see the Queen and a core group of
the royal family emerge on to the balcony
for the finale: groups of singers leading
the crowds in the national anthem.
Morpurgo deliberately omitted from
his book any mention of royal family dra-
mas, fearing it would be a distraction.
“I felt very strongly that this is all
about her and if I peopled it with the diffi-
culty of family, you’d tie yourself up in
knots,” he said. “I hope she’s read it. I
haven’t yet been sent to the Tower. I hope
she’ll take it to bed the night of the jubi-
lee. She’ll be exhausted. It can be her
bedtime story.”
@RoyaNikkhah
Camilla Long reviews The Palace
Papers, Books, Culture, pages 28-The route
From Parliament Square, up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square,
left through Admiralty Arch up the Mall to Buckingham
Palace, echoing the 1953 Coronation procession route
from Westminster Abbey to the PalaceWestminster
¼ mile AbbeySTART
Parliament
SquareWhitehallTrafalgar
SquareAdmiralty ArchBuckingham
PalaceThe MallSt James’s Park Act One
For Queen and Country
Approximately 1,700 marching
and mounted troops, and
veterans from around the UK
and the Commonwealth. Will
include 200 horses from the
Household Cavalry Mounted
Regiment and Kings Troop Royal
Horse Artillery. Marching
bands and mass pipesAct Three
Let’s Celebrate
More than 2,
performers acting
out 12 “chapters”
telling the story
of the Queen’s
life, featuring her
likes and loves,
such as corgisAct Two
The Time of Our Lives
About 2,500 performers
charting cultural changes over
the Queen’s reign. Including
James Bond cars and actors
along with space hoppers
and DaleksAct Four
Happy and
Glorious
The finale
is still a closely
guarded secret,
but will feature
several thousand
performers,
including choirs,
and “stunts”
performed on
stages in front
of Buckingham
Palace and in
front of the
Queen and
members
of the royal family,
who will emerge
on to the
palace balconyTHE PLATINUM JUBILEE PAGEANT
Sunday June 5than a Hollywood fad,
however. From Harrods to
Holland & Barrett, libido-
enhancing pills for women
and men have become the
latest health trend, as the
sexual wellness movement
expands beyond “sex tech”,
such as vibrators.
Brands appear to be
capitalising on shoppers keen
to kickstart their sex lives
after they stalled during
lockdowns, with stress, the
monotony of working from
home and restrictions on
dating all impacting intimacy.
One scientific paper by
researchers in Canada and
Iran, published by the journal
BMC Public Health, found
that coronavirus restrictions
were linked to higher rates of
sexual dysfunction and
reduced sexual activity,
particularly in women.Asystem, said: “Taking a
libido supplement shouldn’t
be any more taboo than
taking a multivitamin.”
Simonds worked with
Maude, a sexual wellness
brand that sells vibrators, to
create the gummies. They
contain fenugreek, pine bark
from France, green tea
extract, turmeric, broccoli,
kale, zinc and magnesium.
While Viagra can enhance
sexual performance for men
it does not effect arousal, a
gap in the market to which
more retailers are catering.
Sam Goodman, assistant
category manager at Holland
& Barrett, said: “Sexual
wellness is increasingly
recognised as an important
factor in our overall physical
and mental health, and as
such people are increasingly
open to talking about andexploring it.” Boots, however,
said that there were many
medical reasons for low libido
and suggested herbs may not
be the answer. It said: “If
women are struggling with
their sex drive or feel
distressed by their reduced
libido, we would always
advise them to speak to a
pharmacist or GP. There are a
number of factors that could
cause a decrease in libido
such as an underlying medical
condition, tiredness or going
through the menopause.”
Boots does, however, have
a sexual wellness section of its
website. In the last three
months, it sold more than
28,000 sex toys in the UK.
Editorial, page 24
We know more about
Mars than we do the vagina,
News Review, page 23When the actress Gwyneth
Paltrow launched a range of
libido-enhancing herbal pills
designed to support female
desire, she wrote: “We’re not
ashamed to say we want help
shifting our sex drive into
gear.” The tablets, in a pink jar
with a picture of a woman’s
lips, are sold on her website,
Goop, for $55 (£43). “It’s not
just about sex: it’s about
supporting our pursuit of
more pleasure, more often,” a
description reads.
The actress, 49, launched
the supplements, which
among other ingredients
contain fenugreek seed and
saffron extract, under the
name DTF, short for “down to
f***”, last year.
Her creation may be moreLouise Eccles
Consumer Affairs EditorLibido-boosting gummies help women get in the mood after lockdown
Sir Michael Morpurgo, top,
shows young Elizabeth
riding her pony in his book,
left, just like in 1934, rightA future queen petted a little pony,
and her passion for horses took off
In a new book to mark the Queen’s 70 years on the throne, Sir Michael Morpurgo reveals the origins of her lifelong love
MICHAEL FOREMAN; DAVID HOWELLS/CORBIS/UIG/GETTY IMAGESIt was during a lunch at Buckingham Pal-
ace that the children’s author Sir Michael
Morpurgo sat next to the Queen and they
talked — and talked — about horses.
Her lifelong passion for them, she
explained, began as a child when she
stroked the neck of a pony, which felt like
“warm velvet”.
The Queen’s words feature in a new
book by the former children’s laureate,
There Once is a Queen. Published next
month, it has inspired parts of the Plati-
num Jubilee pageant, the climax to four
days of celebrations in June marking her
milestone 70 years on the throne.
During their lunch in 2016, Morpurgo
asked the Queen what had sparked her
love for horses. He said: “She mentioned
that she’d been riding ponies for some
time and then her daddy had given her
for a birthday... a horse. She told me
how it was to walk down to the yard and
there was this horse and she would reach
up and touch the neck.”
In his book, Morpurgo writes: “When-
ever she went to saddle her horse to go
for a ride, she would reach up and lay her
hand on his neck, which felt to her like
warm velvet.” It is thought the Queen
may have been referring to her first
Shetland pony, Peggy, a fourth birthday
gift from her grandfather, George V.
She learned to ride in the Royal Mews at
Buckingham Palace when she was three,
and was able to ride alone by the age
of six.
Morpurgo, 78, said: “Those were the
words she used. She talked very, very
movingly about her love for this horse.
This was a life-changing moment. From
that moment on, horses were going to be
part of her life.”
He said that much of their “very
relaxed and easy conversation... was
about horses and Joey [the star of Mor-
purgo’s book War Horse]. She said she
liked War Horse. Apparently it touched
her hugely, she really loved the play, and
particularly she loved the puppet of Joey.
I just feel that when she was with horses,
all her troubles fall away.”
Morpurgo described how behind
closed doors, a less formal Queen was
transformed: “There was a certain
moment when I was looking at her and
she ceased to be the Queen. I very luckily
got to know her briefly, as she stepped
out of the fairy tale and became a granny.
“Finding out there is a real person
there, who wants to talk... that behind
all this, there is a rather wonderful
granny trying to get out and find a little
bit of connection with people [was] a rev-
elation,” he added.
The Queen invited Morpurgo to lunch
after reading War Horse, which tells the
story of the bond between a boy, Albert,
and his horse, Joey, during the First
World War. In 2009, the Queen andROYA
NIKKHAHRoyal EditorLisa Kudrow, the Friends
actress, once hailed her nose
job as “life-altering”. Singer
Courtney Love said it made
“the whole world change”.
But now the nose job has
fallen out of fashion, with
high numbers of “rhinoplasty
regrets” making it the
cosmetic procedure with the
highest dissatisfaction rating.
Doctors say that in recent
years demand has soared for
non-surgical treatment, whichinvolves injecting a filler agent
to temporarily change the
shape of the nose. They
typically last between six
months and two years.
“They have increased
hugely,” said Ifeoma Ejikeme,
an aesthetic doctor and
founder of Adonia Medical
Clinic. “I would say five years
ago, nobody was thinking
about a non-surgical nose
procedure. It just wasn’t
something that was so widely
accepted. Now it is one of the
fastest-growing non-surgicaltreatments. In my practice we
get calls about non-surgical
noses every single day.”
The development of
injectable filler agents that
can smooth out skin, plump
up nostrils and lift drooping
tissue has provided doctors
with alternatives to surgery.
Meanwhile, big or bent
noses no longer hold back an
acting career, as stars such as
Camille Cottin of the French
series Call My Agent! have
demonstrated.
The supermodel BellaHadid admitted recently that
she regretted the nose job she
had when she was 14. “I wish I
had kept the nose of my
ancestors,” she told Vogue
magazine. “I think I would
have grown into it.”
Many others are left
disappointed with their new
nose, “which is very central
and always on show”, said
Rajan Uppal, a consultant
plastic surgeon and member
of the British Association of
Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons
(BAAPS). “Rhinoplasty hasTurning up our noses at permanent nose jobs
Hannah Al-Othman the highest dissatisfaction rate of any cosmetic
procedure for this reason. I
have seen many patients who
regret the whole operation
and want to go back to exactly
their original nose,” he said.
Patients sometimes sue
doctors for failing to deliver
the nose of their dreams.
But rhinoplasty remains
the sixth most popular
cosmetic surgery for women,
according to a BAAPS audit
this year. Although
procedures fell 31 per cent in2020-21, non-surgical
treatments are increasing.
But Kalpesh Patel, director
of the London ENT clinic,
warned “liquid rhinoplasties”
using fillers could not make a
nose smaller or fix a bulbous
tip. The Sunday Times beauty
director Sarah Jossel tried out
fillers in 2019 to correct her
“unsymmetrical, bumpy
nose” and praised the results.
“I don’t see it as any different
to my eyebrow microblading,
teeth whitening or even my
keratin blow-dries,” she said.for increasing sexual arousal
and desire”, after a study of
80 women aged 20 to 49.
Research in 2019, published
in the Avicenna Journal of
Phytomedicine, found that
saffron could be effective in
tackling sexual dysfunction
among men and women.
Last month a new gummy
called Libido was launched in
America that offers separate
formulations for men and
women and claims to increase
blood flow to genitals, boost
testosterone and lower stress.
The brand was co-founded by
Henry Simonds, a British
businessman who lives with
his wife, the author Coco
Mellors, 32, in Los Angeles.
The gummies are expected to
be available in the UK by the
end of the year. Simonds, 35,
the co-founder of the health
supplements companyHolland & Barrett is selling
“natural libido-boosting
remedies”. Its Health & Her
Intimacy food supplements,
developed by nutritionists to
support desire, include maca,
an aphrodisiac.
Selfridges sells a bottle of
30 JSHealth capsules to help
“hair and libido” for £30.
Harrods offers a “libido
enhancer” IV drip for £
for 45 minutes at its in-store
clinic. It also sells boxes of 32
caramel-flavoured syringes of
liquid containing cordyceps
mushrooms designed to
heighten sex drive, at £1,100.
Such products typically
contain plant-based
ingredients, which some tests
have shown can increase
desire. A paper in the journal
Phytotherapy Research in
2015 found that fenugreek
could be a “useful treatment Libido boosters: Henry Simonds and his wife Coco MellorsCHRISTIAN HOGSTEDTBella Hadid
regrets having
cosmetic surgery
at 14, saying she
would have
“grown into the
nose of her
ancestors”