The feral beast: Don't fret, Oprah's here ...

You will recall that Kitty Kelley's biography of Oprah Winfrey caused a hoo-ha in the States when it came out in April, but there has been little sign of it in the UK.

An imprint of Random House (which did the book in the US) was expected to publish it here, but turned it down. Random House strongly denies this was on legal advice, saying it was a commercial decision, and no one else picked it up. But mercifully, Hatchards, in central London, is selling the US edition. Phew.

Wedding bells for Mirror pair

Many congrats to Conor Hanna, the popular deputy editor of the Mirror, and the Telegraph's political correspondent, Rosa Prince, who are getting married – at Claridge's, of course. The pair met as colleagues on the Mirror. Hanna is giving himself plenty of time to recover from his stag do in Bilbao this weekend; the wedding isn't until 20 August. We wish the couple well.

Is this Marxist's daughter blue?

No wonder Labour lost the election. Last week Julia Hobsbawm – daughter of celebrated Marxist historian Eric, toiler in the Blair years for New Labour and former business partner of Sarah Macaulay (to whom she evidently introduced husband-to-be Gordon Brown) – made a remarkable admission. She didn't vote Labour. She didn't exactly cough to having voted for Dave, explaining merely that she was "a bourgeois, middle-class Hampstead girl now in business". Now, let me guess...

Sign up for Cheryl Cole Studies

We may be in the midst of post-election austerity, but some things remain sacred. In case you missed it and fancy a go at teaching what might be called Cheryl Cole Studies, the University of Hertfordshire has a vacancy for a Visiting Lecturer in Music, Celebrity and the Media. "The module will explore the role of popular music as mediated through a range of different media," says the blurb. Form an orderly queue.

Hitchens tells it like it is

Christopher Hitchens, writing with characteristic acuity in the new Vanity Fair about his treatment for cancer of the oesophagus, has been describing having to confront one of the most appealing clichés in our language. "People don't have cancer," he explains. "They are reported to be battling cancer. No well-wisher omits the combative image: You can beat this. It's even in obituaries for cancer losers, as if one might reasonably say of someone that they died after a long and brave struggle with mortality. You don't hear it about long-term sufferers from heart disease or kidney failure." Ever the stylist.

'Guardian' watches its peas

Important news from King's Cross. Style tsars at The Guardian have become exercised by something we all need to be clear about. Mangetout is one word. It is not two words. The Granita years may be over, but thank heavens someone still carries the flag for culinary exactitude. At ease!