to think Pippa Middleton is shamelessly cashing in on her royal connections....

[MrsShortfuse]

..... in publishing a party planning book. I mean, no-one would have heard of her otherwise. I bet the Queen is horrified. AIBU to find it all greedy and money-grabbing?

What Trills said. Good on her for trying to make her own money rather than just being a -layabout- socialite.

And the Queen's own family isn't exactly exempt from cashing in. What about Edward and Andrew? Edward is always cited as the example of royal cashing in, but Andrew isn't exactly covering himself in glory in Kazakhstan while being a "promoter of British business". He wouldn't have got that gig without being who he is, and at least Pippa isn't making money hobnobbing with despots who torture their own people.

How is she exploiting her connections? She's not linking this with the Royal Family, is she?

I remember a big feature on her in the Sunday Times Style magazine - the Middleton Family business and her role in it back in 2010 way before her arse was as famous as it is now. I can't seem to find a link to the actual article, but it was all about the family business and her role in its success.

This is just more of the same, surely - but she simply has a much higher profile now than she did then.

Don't see how it's cashing in on her connections. She works for a living (a good thing, right?), doing what she's pretty much always done, and publicising the latest venture now, as she did then.

See, I think she falls into the same difficulties that Kate had before she married William - damned if she does, damned if she doesn't. If she doesn't do anything she's a vapid socialite, if she does something - anything - then she's trading on her royal connections. they can't win.

I just wonder how many she'll actually sell?

I don't think she is causing any of this. It is simply a reflection of what the newspaper/magazine buying public actually buy. The writers who puff the book, and anything else about her, in column inches and their editors are the ones who have done this. And they are narrowly focussed on providing what is popular.

Is seems that Pippa's choices have been very much limited by press intrusion. But, it is also clear from the first "publicity" about this book from a year ago, she has acted with restraint and delayed publication so it wasn't cashing in just after the wedding and at the start of the Jubilee year.

Well I do think there must have been something Kate could have done for the 10yrs.

But then she wouldn´t have been available as & when for William.

Good on her. At least shes working and providing for herself rather than living off a rich husband or the state.

I like her, she seems fun and a good sister.

Arf at "the insensitivity of publishing a party planning book during a time of austerity"! There's a lot of miserable jealous bastards out there!

I would.

Looks to be a bit of a pain in the arsed (Haha see what I did there?) being involved with the Royals.

Might as well get rich.

Nice advertising OP, I had no idea she had a book out.

YANBU.

Just because she was offered a book deal doesn't mean she should take it. The Middletons seem to have no basic sense of integrity or decency and is keen on cashing in on every possible opportunity.

I don't see the other BRF in-laws cashing in, so why should she? No doubt they have been offered to do the same, but they kept quiet and out of the media spotlight. It's Pippa herself who wants to hog all the attention (royal box seats at Wimbledon, front row tickets at fashion shows) then play victim (I am a private citizen!! blah blah blah) when the press attention gets out of hand.

She can't have it both ways - either she goes away quietly or admit that she's a celebrity and take into stride the privileges and advantages that goes with it.

it is a family business, i suspect both Kate and pippa has had an imput into the business.

So it is true the business has a royal connection, only because Kate has married a royal doesn't mean she is no longer part of her 'birth' family

Just because she was offered a book deal doesn't mean she should take it. The Middletons seem to have no basic sense of integrity or decency and is keen on cashing in on every possible opportunity.

To paraphrase a famous comedian.... 'The dastardly Middleton Plot. It began around thirty years ago when two jumped up middle class people decided that in order to improve their lot they needed a cunning plan. They set to and managed to become pregnant. The next step was for one to build the business up while the other spent hours researching the best public schools, the one which would most likely end up in their daughter attending the same University as a royal. The practicalities then taken care of they spent the years in between carefully schooling their daughter in the neccersary arts to attract such a prince'

You are ridiculous. Hth.

No I'm not. They've been cashing in albeit discreetly even before the wedding.
Just because I don't subscribe to the 'Will and Kate are a lovely couple and are the future of the monarchy' mantra that the Palace have been shoving down our throats doesn't mean I'm ridiculous.

Kudos to the parents for their hard work, but I won't respect them for pushing Kate to William and letting her become their meal ticket to the royalty. I just can't imagine a parent allowing their child to waste their 20s because they're so keen to social climb. If William was your regular plumber guy do you think Kate will waste her life waiting for the proposal? NO. Thank God he did propose because no doubt Waity Katie would still be waiting now if he hadn't. PATHETIC.

Plenty of people connected to the Royal Family have written books that would otherwise never been published. The Queen's own cousin Margaret Rhodes wrote an autobiography - clearly the main selling point of it was that it was in part about the Queen's own life, as she had grown up as the Queen's playmate and was very close to the Queen Mother. Her other cousin Elizabeth Anson has had a career as a party planner and published books on it. Earl Spencer has made a fortune out of opening Althorp up. Sarah Ferguson has done nothing BUT trade on her connections and her daughters.

I feel extremely sorry for Pippa, who appears to do not much other than go about her daily life yet gets photographed and humiliatingly objectified all over the press because she's Kate's only female sibling. It's as though the press have decided that if they can't hound Kate because she has buried herself in Wales, or because people will remember what happened to Diana, they'll do it to her sister instead. So, yes, I think she might as well get something out of it and party planning is what she has done for yonks anyway.

Who cares? If she can turn an honest buck from it, more power to her!

Gees, maybe she actually loves the guy! Maybe she didn't consider it a race to the alter. Maybe he didn't, either.

What's your problem?

You seem quite jealous and petty.

The only thing that annoys me about it is how jealous I am that such a plum opportunity landed in her lap! I spent five years writing a book that, despite being good enough to get as far as a literary agent, still isn't published. It's an incredibly tough industry to enter as a writer but if you just happen to be the fragrant sister of the future queen then you can dash off any old crap for £400k. Still if I was her would I have done the same? Absolutely! She deserves to get something back after the tabloid crap she has dealt with. She doesn't actually get paid every time there's an article about her or photo published...

hurray, its the Digested Read

Can you blame her? Most of us would do the same.

But everyone does this - look how many celebs get books published just because of who they are. Look at the hardback bestseller list this Christmas and it'll be filled with non-entities and their ghost-written autobiographies.

Look at spouses (usually wives) of celebs - Tana Ramsay, Jules Oliver etc publishing books about twaddle that people buy simply because of the name. Hell, look at Mylene Class - gives birth, decides she's an expert and writes a book about it. Davina McCall - loses weight, decides she's a fitness guru and makes several bestselling videos about it and £££££ to boot!

And how about all the celebs who ingeniously grate cheese onto an M&S ready-meal and decide they're Masterchef? Their book is no better than yours or mine would be but people buy theirs because of the name and because it brings them that little but closer to fame themselves.

That said, I do think Pippa's book is a bit cringeworthy and the reference in the introduction to becoming famous due to her bottom and her sister is shameless.

The problem is with the press who manufacture the hype around these people - and who buys the stuff that they manufacture? We do - well some people anyway. If it didn't sell it wouldn't happen so by buying the magazines and newspapers that print this stuff we perpetuate it. I couldn't care less whether PM makes money out of this, and I think a lot of the bitchiness is envy, pure and simple.

To be fair to Pippa and her publishers, it's the sort of book that there appears to be a big market for at the moment - cosy recipes and craft ideas.

It's not my sort of thing, so I won't be buying it, but it's hardly some sort of tell-all autobiography, or a pretentious ghost-written novel.

No I'm not. They've been cashing in albeit discreetly even before the wedding.
you mean making a living? Which ways could they make money that would be acceptable to you?

Just because I don't subscribe to the 'Will and Kate are a lovely couple and are the future of the monarchy' mantra that the Palace have been shoving down our throats doesn't mean I'm ridiculous.
they are the future of the monarchy that is a fact. However, no not liking them does not, in itself, make you ridiculous. It's the insisting the middletons have behaved badly that is ridiculous

Kudos to the parents for their hard work, but I won't respect them for pushing Kate to William and letting her become their meal ticket to the royalty.
did they push her? They weren't even in the same country when they met. She is an intelligent woman, I think she made up her own mind

I just can't imagine a parent allowing their child to waste their 20s because they're so keen to social climb.
what anyone spends their 20s doing is their own business. It was not up to Kate's parents to do anything about how she chose to live her life. What an odd idea. And while I'm at it she did actually have jobs, and a social life during this period. It is a press construction that she sat on her arse doing nothing and waiting. Plenty of people don't get engaged until after they are 30 and they are not all lampooned for it in the press

If William was your regular plumber guy do you think Kate will waste her life waiting for the proposal? NO.
plenty of people are in long term relationships with plumbers before they get married. Whether or not Kate would ever have fallen for plumber I don't know, and nor do you. And has nothing to do with her parents or sister or this topic.

Thank God he did propose because no doubt Waity Katie would still be waiting now if he hadn't. PATHETIC.
are people in long term relationships that don't get engaged pathetic now? Is your opinion of women really that low?