Imogen Lycett-Green

Hard-working, mercurial and good at playing mean – reformed hell-raiser Dominic West eats asparagus into the small hours with Imogen Lycett Green After nearly two decades hitting headlines as a womanising bachelor of the most hell-raising kind, Dominic West married the mother of three of his four children last year. Has family life brought tranquillity with it? ‘You must be joking,’ he screams, throwing his head back. ‘I am swamped by kids. The theatre is where the order is, the calm, the structure. Things begin on time. Family life is chaos. I have never been happier in my life but when it’s time to go to the theatre, I run out the door.

Heavenly jockeys, splitting trousers and plenty of Pinot Grigio – Imogen Lycett Green enjoys a breathless lunch in the Cotswolds with Jilly Cooper Two hours earlier she had rushed, panting, into the Crown Inn in Frampton Mansell. ‘I am SO SORRY I am late!’ she said, falling into the fire-smoky bar wearing leggings, knee-length brown boots, a white shirt and a belt that looks like a piece of horse tack. Sexy is the only word for it. Her instantly recognisable helmet/halo of thick grey hair frames her round, rosy-cheeked face. She is wearing a silver brooch of a galloping racehorse. ‘How are you?’ she says to the young barman. ‘I’m good,’ he replies. Jilly is thrilled. ‘I love the way the younger generation say I’m good.