Lucian Freud

The portrait was as unforgiving as one might imagine: it was gritty, coarse-featured, and imposing. According to one commenter, the monarch should have Freud locked up for lese majeste. However, as Brown explains, the Queen herself reflected her customary lack of personal appearance when the painting was unveiled. She remarked gnomically, 'Very interesting.'

EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Julian Barnes, a novelist, has sparked rumors that eminent art critic David Sylvester demanded gifts from artists whose work he was writing about. 'Sylvester, who died in 2001, wanted two pieces from each artist,' Barnes writes in The London Review of Books.' This has enraged Sylvester's children, Xanthe and Naomi, who describe Freud as a 'p***** off' because of their father's honesty. They write: "The LRB's publication of these remarks so casually and unquestionably disgraceful," they write in a letter in the new Review.'

Hugh Grosvenor, the 7th Duke of Westminster, marries gourmet food company executive Olivia Henson in June, when the ancient pews of Chester Cathedral will be crammed with the cream of the British aristocracy. King Charles and Camilla are due to be guests, while Prince George, the 32-year-old Duke's godson, is predicted to be a pageboy. We've got all you'll need to hear about the billionaire Duke and his English rose.