Becks Roasted Over Eco Island Fire Pit

He has, in his time, sashayed around in a sarong, sported a top-knot and, during his legendary wedding celebrations, seated himself in splendour on one of two gold thrones – while his bride, , perched on the other.

These days, though, Sir , 51, has contentedly settled into a tweedier existence, whether enjoying a day’s partridge shooting with his pal , ‘guest-editing’ Country Life magazine or tending to the broad beans and carrots he grows on the 26 acres at his Oxfordshire retreat.

But Sir David, who spent his infancy in Leytonstone, East London, and adolescence in Chingford on the capital’s north-east outskirts, now finds his rustic credentials being called into question. As if that were not galling enough, I can disclose that the person levelling the charges against him is an ecologist of 24 years’ standing.

Asked by the local council to evaluate developments on an island Becks inserted on his man-made lake at his Cotswolds residence, Melanie Dodd observes that, when first proposed, the island’s purpose was to increase the lake’s ‘value for wildlife’.

But, she reflects, this ‘increased value’ is currently difficult to detect, partly because there is ‘limited cover for nesting birds’, and partly because of the ‘uplighting’ of an oak – but, above all, because the island is ‘being used as a fire pit, with a bridge for access’.

‘Islands are generally provided within ponds or lakes to provide nesting birds and other wildlife with a predator-free location,’ observes Melanie, who, from 2022 to 2024, was operations manager for consultancy firm NatureSpace, overseeing a team of 14 ‘newt officers’ to support local authorities with the great crested newt district licensing scheme.

She adds: ‘I therefore recommend removal of the following features: uplighting into the oak tree – to protect foraging/commuting bats – [and the] fire pit – to reduce disturbance at least during nesting bird season.’

Sir David’s representatives do not respond to my inquiries. I hope they break the news to Becks very gently. He credits Lock, Stock director Ritchie with intensifying his love of rural life. ‘Guy is the sort of man who lives outside,’ Sir David reflected last October. ‘He’s a modern-day caveman, who’s made me fall far deeper in love with the countryside... Sometimes, we sit for hours around a fire, just the two of us, and talk late into the night.’

The island’s newts will just have to manage without them...

How Emma's wild nights keep her up 

Struggling to sleep in the heatwave? Spare a thought for the Marchioness of Bath, who has to cope with mating calls – and not from her husband, Ceawlin, 52.

The couple live at the Marquess’s ancestral seat, Longleat in Wiltshire, home to a safari park with 120 different species of wild animals.

‘We’ve just got a new giraffe called Stanley,’ former Strictly contestant Emma, 40, tells me at the Serpentine Gallery summer party in London.

‘You can hear the animals at night, especially when there’s a thunderstorm. We have the sea lions bark all night long – it’s almost like a mating call. Plus, the wolves howl and the lions roar.’

Scholarship legacy of tragic Pop Idol star Darius 

Pop Idol star Darius died from a heart attack aged 41 after visiting his friend, the Hollywood star Gerard Butler, in the US in 2022.

Now, the Scottish singer’s parents are honouring his memory by donating an undisclosed sum of money to the Royal Academy of Music in London to fund a scholarship for an aspiring musician.

Annual fees at the RAM for Bachelor of Music (Honours) are £9,700 for UK students.

‘This is a wonderful gift in Darius’s name for one of our talented young students here,’ says a spokesman.

England's former manager Sir Gareth Southgate was spared the side’s bore draw against Ghana, which kicked off at 9pm on Tuesday – because he was already tucked up in bed. Sir Gareth, who lives in Yorkshire, was asked whether he was enjoying the tournament co-hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico. Ree Williams, who bumped into him at at Moortown post office in Leeds, says: ‘I asked him, “Oh, so you must be watching the football?”. And he said, “Oh, no, it’s too late for me.”’ 

Melinda Gates in private chat with Princess of Wales 

Bill Gates was once a regular at royal events, but the Microsoft founder’s friendship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has made him almost as toxic as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

Bill’s ex-wife Melinda French Gates, who divorced her unfaithful husband after he maintained contact with Epstein, is, however, still welcome at the palace.

To prove it, the Princess of Wales invited her to Windsor Castle on Tuesday for private talks. It’s not known what she discussed with Royal Foundation patron Catherine, 44, but Melinda, 61, met her in her role as founder of Pivotal, a philanthropic organisation promoting women’s empowerment.

Gates told the US Congress House Oversight Committee this week that he had affairs with two Russian women, a bridge player and a nuclear physicist. The 70-year-old also admitted a third affair with a medical entrepreneur.

Having spent the morning handing out gongs to 72 different people at a Windsor Castle investiture on Tuesday morning, King Charles received an ‘honour’ of his own in the afternoon – from his brother-in-law.

Princess Anne’s husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, bestowed on the King a fellowship of the Science Museum.

Sir Tim is chairman of the London museum’s trustees.

The King, who is still receving cancer treatment, has an impressive work ethic: he also met former US president Bill Clinton and outgoing Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on the same day, before attending a reception for his Royal Drawing School.