He's not Raquel Welch, Bob Hope or even Rachel Johnson. So why is Matt Warren, editor of The Lady, going to Afghanistan over Christmas to talk to the troops?
Some scribes at the magazine’s headquarters in Covent Garden are convinced it’s all a big mistake and our servicemen and women are in for a terrible disappointment when they find that former editor Rachel Johnson, younger sister of Boris, will not be with them for the festive season. But Warren insists this is not the case.
“Rachel wasn’t invited,” he tells me. “You have to apply to the Ministry of Defence to go there and a panel puts your name up for approval. This is what I did. I don’t doubt that some soldiers will be very sad that I’m not Rachel but there’s nothing I can do about that.
“I’m not going there to entertain the troops anyway. I’m going to write about several different regiments.
“My father was in the Royal Marines for 32 years and this is something
I feel strongly about.
“I recently completed a fundraising abseil in St Pancras for their benefit. I’ll also be talking to servicewomen about their role in the conflict.
“I’ll be taking a Betty’s Christmas pud from Harrogate and I hope to learn some useful tips on rodent control. There are lot of mice in Afghanistan, I’m told.”
