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Your support makes all the difference.* Fay Weldon is performing a dramatic career volte-face, at the age of 74. The queen bee of modern letters is resting her novelist's pen for a career in classical music.
Having written a children' s libretto entitled A Small Green Space a few years back, the prolific writer is hard at work on not one but two full-blown operas.
One is a musical adaptation of the French writer Raymond Radiguet's adult novel Le Diable au corps; the other is thought to be an original work, set in Greece.
Both are likely to fill column inches. The Grecian project is said to be the subject of an (as yet opaque) legal action, while Le Diable au corps was one of the most controversial novels of the 1920s.
"Radiguet's book was quite scandalous in its day because it describes a 15-year-old girl having an affair with a boy aged 16, when her husband is away fighting in the First World War," Weldon tells me.
"Radiguet was Jean Cocteau's boyfriend and died in 1923 after eating a poisoned oyster. I'm really enjoying working on it.
"It's very gratifying to think one's words will be sung, as they can be seen as statements of universal truths."
The projects may divide opera lovers. Some will be flattered by Weldon's interest; others can be hostile to innovation.
Whatever happens, she's unlikely to quit literature for good, though. "Fay's never seen herself as a pure novelist, and has written screenplays in the past," says a chum.
* For all his bumbling, devil-may-care personality, there are signs of a ruthless streak to Jamie Oliver.
Yesterday, it emerged that the TV chef had parted company with Pete Berry, the amiable spokesman who mentored him from early in his career.
Instead, he's joined the books of Public Eye, a celebrity agency whose clients include Sienna Miller and Barry Manilow.
The move surprised colleagues in the TV industry, since Oliver scored a series of PR triumphs with his recent campaign to improve school dinners.
However, sources close to Berry denied rumours of a falling-out last night.
"It's come as a surprise, since Jamie and Pete were close for four and a half years, and had a great time together," I'm told. "But Jamie's departure was purely a business decision - these things happen from time to time."
Are bridges burned, or would they consider working together again? "Who knows what might happen in the future."
* Could another seismic rift be about to open in the "cleavage line" splitting the world of classical music?
A day after the opera singer Marina Laslo spoke out against the sexing-up of her trade, Classic FM has hired the pop starlet Myleene Klass as its latest disc jockey.
Although she joins a growing list of celebrities - including John Suchet and Katie Derham - in its stable, the station stresses that Klass, pictured, has brains as well as beauty.
"Myleene plays piano, violin and harp, and studied at music college, so she knows what she's talking about," says controller Darren Henley.
Klass, whose Sunday morning show begins next month, is equally robust.
"It's very easy for (Laslo) to be confrontational, but you should be careful casting stones," she tells me.
"Firstly, you can't bluff classical music; you either know Mozart or you don't. Secondly, given that I'm on radio, what have looks got to do with anything?"
* If Hughes and Oaten are anything to go by, it's a matter of time until Lib Dem front-runner "Ming" Campbell gets bogged down in scandal.
His downfall's unlikely to involve sex, though. For leadership rivals are circulating a dossier highlighting his "dodgy" record on the Iraq war.
The document alleges that Sir Menzies was sceptical about his party's opposition to the invasion, and attempted to prevent Charles Kennedy attending the anti-war march in London in 2003.
"Ming's consistently denied being pro-war, but we have evidence from senior aides that he was," I'm told.
"Sexual skeletons are one thing, but one worries that he's got a serious political misjudgement in his closet."
* George Galloway failed to predict that a fortnight in the Celebrity Big Brother house would damage his political credibility, but he might have realised that it would affect his sanity.
Writing in this week's Tower Hamlets Recorder - printed, bizarrely, while he was still "inside" - the Respect MP turned his attention to local housing problems.
"Every week at my surgeries, I see families who are living in terribly overcrowded conditions," he noted. "I've seen families of nine and 10 people living in two-bedroom accommodation.
"I've seen families where teenage sisters and brothers are having to share the same bedroom. No one should have to live in conditions like these."
Such a place is the Big Brother house. How splendid that "gorgeous" George failed to heed his own sage advice.
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