A Winner Among The Celebs

Well coming back to celebrities in Majorca, this weekend saw a gathering of knights and those yet to be or unlikely to be kneeling before Her Majesty. Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber had invited a bunch of Sirs and others to Majorca, and Deia in particular, to mark his sixty years. Personally, I am unimpressed. That a load of A-listers pitch up for a do is their affair and not one that interests me, except ... except that Michael Winner was along for the ride at the weekend, photographed down at posh Portals.

Michael Winner is gloriously obnoxious. His "Winner's Dinners" column in "The Sunday Times" is one of the funniest things you can read. He obviously doesn't give a damn, and he will rip a restaurant to pieces with huge doses of sarcasm. Many probably hate him and his writings. I don't. I love him for his total disregard for reputation.

Why mention this? It just occurs to me what would happen were there to be a "Winner's Dinners" for Majorcan restaurants? How many would wither or prosper at the hand of his acerbic pen? Quite a few both ways, one imagines. One of the non-traditional areas that Majorca is seeking to exploit in tourism terms is its gastronomy. There are some very fine restaurants here, but "very fine" is not necessarily an obstacle to Winner in full vitriolic flow. It's almost something one would wish to do, but I , for one, wouldn't dare to come out with the stuff he does. The remarkable thing is how he manages to get away with it. He wouldn't here.

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