Helena Bonham Carter is cast as fairy godmother in Kenneth Branagh's Cinderella Rupert returns Jilly Cooper enjoyed telling fellow race-goers that Royal Ascot was a work assignment for her this year. The "bonkbuster" novelist, who is a friend of the Duchess of Cornwall, is working on a book set in the racing world, Leading Sire. "The research for flat racing is so divine." she tells Mandrake at a lunch hosted by Bollinger. The novel will see the return of Rupert Campbell-Black, the galloping swordsman inspired by Camilla's former husband, Brig Andrew Parker Bowles. "Rupert is definitely going to be in this novel," she says. He is hugely in it. He is about to be 60. Although he hasn't been randy since he had been married and he loves his wife. How to beat Boris's bumps Andrew Mitchell auctioned off his trusty bicycle, with its distinctive basket, for charity after it had a starring role in the "Plebgate" row. Its replacement, a fancy mountain bike, is, the former chief whip suggests, cheekily, much better suited to the state of the capital's roads under Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London. "It's a better bike," he says at a reception to mark the centenary of New Statesman magazine, at the Great Hall in Westminster. It can even handle Boris's potholes. Mitchell adds: "I'm not being stopped so much now when I'm cycling, as it has a much less distinct basket than the old one."