Girl About Town

Posted on April 15, 2007 in Uncategorized

To kick things off on 1 March, Girl About Town went to the launch of Gerard Woodward’s new novel A Curious Earth at Daunt Books on Holland Park Avenue. Gerard did a wonderful reading, and it was great to see so many friends and supporters enjoying the evening.
Later in the evening, GAT popped in to the Long Acre in Covent Garden, to celebrate World Book Day with the SYP. Amidst the fun and merriment, GAT also popped in to the party for the opening night of Whipping It Up, the play at the New Ambassadors with Richard Wilson and Robert Bathurst, which was being held in the downstairs bar. Ronnie Corbett and Jon Snow were also spotted enjoying the celebrations!

Place: Daunts, Holland Park Avenue/ The Long Acre

The following week, GAT was lucky enough to be invited to the Galaxy British Book Awards shortlist party. Held at the magnificent Michelin-starred restaurant Sketch, and hosted by the indomitable Richard and Judy, this was a wonderful lunchtime party, packed wall-to-wall with famous authors and the press, from Griff Rhys Jones to Kim and Aggie’s Aggie MacKenzie; Jackie Kay to Jilly Cooper. Sketch’s fantastic brunch-y canapés, and copious amounts of chocolate provided by Galaxy, made this a wonderful party.

Place: Sketch
We Drank: champagne and the most wonderful chocolate-based cocktails were served alongside juices, teas and coffees
We Ate: scrambled egg on miniature buttered toasts, exquisite tiny pastries, fresh fruit skewers, bite-sized halloumi cheese parcels, and quite staggering amounts of Minstrels.

The next evening, GAT celebrated International Women’s Day with the launch of Anna Kiernan’s anthology Bit on the Side: Work, Sex, Love, Loss and Own Goals at Polka on Poland Street. It was great to see so many women from very different walks of life who had contributed to the volume come along to celebrate.

Place: Polka, Poland Street

A very, very different party followed a few days later… GAT was invited to celebrate the March edition of Penthouse Magazine with current Penthouse Pet Louise Glover at Funky Buddha’s on Berkeley Square. The party doubled-up as a casting for future wannabe Penthouse Pets – so, as you can imagine, there were eye-popping amounts of flesh on display! Think scantily-clad, breast-augmented glamourpusses, WAG-style…

Place: Pout @ Funky Buddha’s, Berkeley Square
We Drank: not nearly enough..!
We Ate: food? At a party with models..? You must be joking!

A much more cultured affair was the party for The Liberal magazine, held at The Groucho Club, Soho. Packed with literary figures and journalists, and with free-flowing booze and excellent canapés, this was a sure-fire success of a party. Music was supplied by the Clemency Burton-Hill quartet (some of you may know Clemency better as journalist Sophie Montgomery in the TV series Party Animals!).

Place: The Groucho Club
We Drank: champagne and red wine
We Ate: mini duck wraps, mushroom and gruyere toasts, mini spring rolls, tempura prawns, avocado toasts, chicken satay skewers.

The next evening brought March to a close, with a launch party for Blake Morrison’s new book South of the River at the Hayward Gallery. Rumours of an appearance by Colin Firth were sadly dashed with a last-minute apologetic text to the author! But plenty of big-name authors did come along to celebrate, including Deborah Moggach, Julian Barnes, Julie Myerson and Alan Hollinghurst.

Place: Waterloo Sunset Pavilion, Hayward Gallery
We Drank: lots of wine
We Ate: smoked salmon & cream cheese blinis, duck, hoi sin & mascarpone on mini toasts, blue cheese bites

Socialite’s Tip of the Month – one for the ladies…: Gat is not normally one to get over-excited about a mascara (!), but BeneFit’s BADgal Mascaria in blue realy does perform minor miracles! Although it looks scarily ’80s in the tube, the deep blue-violet colour appears to neautralise redness whilst making eyes look brighter and clearer. A must for any party girl! So long tired, hungover eyes…who’d have through we only had three hours sleep? and accidentally slept in our contact lense? Ooops…