Tom Parker Bowles is still promoting his book, Cooking & the Crown, which came out back in October. Tom did a big promotional blitz back then, giving tons of interviews to British and American outlets. I thought we were done with it, but no, he’s still talking. He gave a lengthy interview to the Telegraph about cooking, his life as a food writer and the Windsor clan. I actually think the point of this interview was less about book promotion and more about Tom giving some updates about his mother and his plans to spend Christmas at Sandringham. Some highlights:

When he got busted for drugs in 1999: “It was the very height of the tabloid era. I remember being chased at 100mph by paps trying to get a shot. My mother being screamed at to try to get a reaction. Pushing, jostling. It was horrific, and you are protective of your mother. Counting how many paps were at the gates, to see who was watching us and taking photographs: it was all as normal as bacon and eggs in the morning. You didn’t think of it in any other way … [But] it was barbaric. I learned a long time ago not to put my fat fingers into the world of William and Harry. But it was appalling what they went through. I’ve had a billionth of what they’ve had to go through but hell, I sympathise.”

He doesn’t like London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan: “London’s nightlife seems to have disappeared. It’s not a 24-hour city. [Khan] has done badly by the after-dark industry. London for me is the greatest city in the world. But he is not the greatest mayor in the world, not by a long stretch.”

He supports farmers: “The two heroes of farming are the King and Jeremy Clarkson. Clarkson’s a hero of the farmers because he has shown that it’s a thankless task. I’d never ever speak for the King. But all my life, way before it was trendy, way before regenerative was even a word … he has been banging the drum and supporting farming. There is no man – and I’m not being oily – who knows more about cheesemaking. If he wasn’t king he would be a fantastic food writer.”

His father Andrew Parker Bowles: “He’s almost 85, but he has always been fit and he has only ever drunk at night. That’s why he’s fine.”

He’s spending his first Christmas at Sandringham: For the first time, although he says it is not 100 per cent confirmed, he is planning to take his family to Sandringham for Christmas Day. Usually he has spent it with his ex-wife, the former fashion editor Sara Buys, and their teenage children Lola and Frederick, but this year he is set on taking the children to Norfolk. “For the past 15 years it has been: I go back to my ex-wife’s house, sit in my tracksuit bottoms, go to the pub while the beef’s in, then try to get my children to watch The Wild Geese. Classic. So this would be a bit different…. I genuinely know nothing about it. I know there’s turkey and sprouts and church. And I have to bring a suit and a dinner jacket.”

Camilla asked him to come to Christmas this year: He says that while the invitation has always been there, his mother specifically asked him to come this year. It has been a difficult period for the King and Queen, health-wise. The King is being treated for cancer; the Queen has been recovering from a bout of pneumonia after their trip to Australia and Samoa. “My mum said ‘I’d love you to come, I haven’t had Christmas with you for a long time. It has been a hell of a two years for them. The older you get, the more conscious you become of mortality, especially with illnesses and the rest of it.”

Camilla works so hard! “She went back to work before she should have done but she’s fine. She’s tough. She hates that she missed Remembrance Sunday. That’s a big day for her. She just gets on with it. She’s always been like that. Sometimes you don’t know where she is and you’ll look at the telly and she’ll be in Ireland. Nothing’s changed [since she became Queen] except she’s now Your Majesty, rather than Your Highness, and she works a lot harder.”

[From The Telegraph]

I remember last year, people talked about how Camilla invited her kids and grandkids to Sandringham, but maybe Laura and her kids were the only ones who showed up? It’s interesting that this will be Tom’s first Sandringham Christmas, and I absolutely wonder whether we’ll see him on the church walk too. Remember, Prince William apparently doesn’t want anything to do with Tom, and the Waleses will probably use Tom’s presence as an excuse to skip out on a lot of stuff. Anyway, it absolutely feels like Camilla asked Tom to give this interview so he could do some hype work for her and announce the Christmas plans.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.