BACK at the Royal wedding – Kate’s and William’s – it wasn’t only Pippa Middleton’s pert bottom that won the bride’s sister as much attention as the bride.

Any lust factor among the watching males was at least equalled by general admiration for Pippa’s classic dress, graceful deportment and, perhaps crucially, the discreet, gentle way she shepherded the young bridesmaids.

Was it not the latter that truly endeared her to the nation – made her more than a just a shapely figure with a perfect posterior?

But that was then – April 29, 2011. Now, in one of the most obvious examples you could conceive of cashing in on celebrity status, Pippa has produced a book: Celebrate – a Year of Festivities for Families and Friends.

Its ideas include – make a note of this – a sack race. Hmm, intriguing – how is it run?

Well, entrants climb into sacks and then – but let Pippa explain: “Everyone stands along a starting line and, on “Go”, players start jumping in their sacks towards the finishing line. Over-enthusiastic racers will most likely get themselves in a tangle and fall. The first person to cross the finish line is declared the winner.”

Wow. Kids’ parties and village fetes will gain new zest with that cracker. But what about “festivities” for “family and friends”

on summer evenings. Pippa recommends a barbeque, even if the weather is hostile: “Most guests will, without doubt, still relish the chance of eating outside wrapped up in blankets and coats.”

Without doubt. And the same probably applies to camping. This, Pippa reveals, is “rather like a picnic, but it brings an extra sense of camaraderie”. Naturally she’s already introduced readers to picnics, whose origins she traces – you’d better believe this – to the demise of coaching inns.

For the launch of her book Pippa wore four outfits – not all at once, which might have over-bulked even her svelte form. Starting in a multi-coloured tunic, she appeared successively in a mulberry dress, a bodice dress and a skater-style top and skirt.

Her publicity people made sure wannabes knew the source of each – respectively Paper London, Roksanda Illincic, Markus Lupfer and Stella McCartney.

Did I describe Pippa’s book project as “the most obvious” example of cashing-in on celebrity status? The word I intended instead of obvious was shameless.

She may have been unfortunately upstaged by her sister’s bottom at her wedding, but Kate is proving to be the truly captivating Middleton girl. Pippa should reflect seriously on what became the widening gulf in the public’s regard and esteem for two 20th Century Royal sisters, one happily still with us.

ASH tree dieback: first warning 2009.

First sighting in Britain: last February.

First Government appeal to the public to watch for shrivelled-leaves: October 29, height of the autumn leaf-fall. Perhaps politicians, absorbed in their expenses, are unaware of the seasons.

But one man who knows his trees is Colin Crosbie, curator of the Royal Horticultural Society’s garden at Wisley. In mid-September he predicted “a firework display” of autumn colour, produced by a combination of persistent rain, which encouraged phenomenal leaf growth, followed by cold nights. “If it stays like this for the next month or so it will be incredible,” he said.

And so it is. I trust you’ve noticed this golden afterglow to our dismal summer.