Dipping them in their Earl Grey

Molly Jong-Fast, Erica Jong’s daughter, has revealed horrifying details of Sophie Dahl’s early life with her (Sophie’s) mother, Tessa Dahl. It was, apparently, “impossibly glamorous”: her house was filled with “dried flowers, British cookies, chanting Indian monks, incense and famous people”.

Now hold on there, never mind about the Indian monks: many American youngsters have to put up with raucous chanting while they are trying to do their homework. But British cookies? How impossibly glamorous can you get? Constantly jostled by all these famous people wandering about stuffing themselves with Garibaldis, Bath Olivers, Oval Maries, Ginger Nuts, Rich Teas, Chocolate Digestives and Custard Creams, no wonder the poor child finished up as a supermodel: with a background as exotic as that there was no way she could ever have followed an ordinary career.