Wimbledon seems to be a haven of culture and fun in October.


Taking over the common for 10 days, Wimbledon BookFest brought the literati to our home town, with authors, celebrities and journalists descending on SW19.

From my office opposite Wimbledon Common, it has been delightful to watch the borough's school children coming out of their classrooms and into the tent to meet and greet authors, and listen to talks offering them so much more than their usual daily curriculum.

Indulging in 10 consecutive evenings out, I attended talks about brilliant women, powerful politics, the magic of music and even rugby.

First up was The Digital Ape discussion, which I attended with Wimbletech Founder David Fletcher. Sir Nigel Shadbolt – one of Britain's leading authorities on AI – provided a positive take on how to make peace with smartphones.

As a digital entrepreneur and mother of three young children, this conversation was especially close to home for me.

An hour later, women poured into the tent to hear Channel 4 News presenter and journalist Cathy Newman talk about her new book, Bloody Brilliant Women.

Although the heavens had opened and heels were abandoned for boots, ladies from Wimbledon and beyond raised the roof in celebration of the trailblazers who have shaped our world and yet been written out of the history books.

I was joined by my team and Karine Torr from Darling magazine, who had spent the previous night speed-reading Newman's inspiring tribute to pioneering women of the world.

We were delighted to have our books signed and our photograph taken with the author herself.

Next on my hit list was Billy Bragg, who revealed that back in the day, he had ended up on our Common writing the lyrics to ‘Between the Wars’ after a row with his wife.

His interviewer, John Kennedy, suggested that perhaps a blue plaque was missing on the bench where he wrote the song.

My final BookFest outing was to hear my old friend Brian Moore in conversation with former English Rugby Union player Rob Andrew.

Amongst a mostly male audience, I found myself sandwiched between the Wimbledon Brewery crew, who were squeezing an event between pulling pints of their locally brewed ales.

On the closing night of BookFest, across from the tent at Cannizaro House, I levelled out the gender imbalance by giving a speech on Women Empowerment during Mrs Eurasia International awards.

Surrounded by beautifully crowned women, I was very grateful I had topped off my floral outfit with a wonderful headpiece by milliner Edwina Ibbotson.

And that's not all: from artist Jo Holdsworth's exhibition at Neptune and a Christmas menu-tasting at Hotel du Vin's Cannizaro House to the almighty Great Gatsby Celeb FC Gala, founded by Wimbledon's Karin Flower, it has been an extraordinary couple of weeks in the SW19 calendar.  

As I watch the BookFest tent being deconstructed from my office window, I can see another extraordinary few weeks coming up in my calendar, already jam-packed with Halloween parties, early Christmas shindigs and the forthcoming Wimbledon International Music Festival.

With such a fun-filled November ahead, I have asked my team to excuse me while I head to my motherland Cyprus, leaving heels and make-up at home, to spend a week jumping some waves with my kids this half-term.
See you on the other side,

Lady Wimbledon