ALEXANDRA SHULMAN’S NOTEBOOK: My guide to making our US friends feel at home

A few months back I wrote of how the Americans were coming to London, bringing with them early dining and a takeover of the capital’s tennis courts.

Many of those escaping Trump’s America are also bringing the big buck spending power we urgently need now that wealthy non-doms are leaving en masse.

So we must welcome the Americans, keep them close and make sure that they don’t skip off to Portugal or Spain after one British winter (they don’t speak the language there, so there’s hope).

Writer Lena Dunham, whose TV series Girls in the mid-2010s defined an era of New York singledom, is one of those who has relocated here. 

It seems to have inspired her new Netflix comedy series Too Much, in which the central character, Jessica, is posted to London for work.

Unlike most hyper-organised Americans I know here, Jessica is a chaotic hot mess. 

‘Do the British find American accents as sexy as we find yours?’ she asks her new London boyfriend, who fails to come up with the correct answer, which should be, ‘Of course. We love listening to you!’

To ensure we Brits don’t make similar mistakes with our valued new guests, I have devised a few guidelines to make Americans feel more at home:

• Do not ask ‘What’s a person like you doing in a place like this?’ – as I heard one Brit say to my American ex-husband over dinner in a club.
• Do not make jokes about Toto to an American who mentions Kansas.
• Do show your amazement that they manage to get tickets to every sold-out show in town like Oasis or Wimbledon.
• Do not ask ‘How much did you have to pay for that?’
• Americans like to drink spirits. Never greet them with ‘Would you like a glass of red, white or pink?’
• Prepare them for the fact that whenever somebody asks how long it takes to get somewhere, the Brits will always underestimate and claim you can get there in no time at all. Cheltenham has never been an hour and a half drive from London.
• Don’t mention Trump – no matter which political side they are on. They are fed up with hearing our opinions on that subject.

Sarah may bloom out of the limelight

Like many, I’ve bought my fair share of plants from Sarah Raven. Some have thrived, some haven’t – just like plants I’ve bought anywhere. 

For years, Sarah’s been the face of her gardening company, with its sumptuous catalogue and website that tempts even the most hopeless gardener into orders of cafe au lait dahlias. 

There she is, dressed in smocks and gardening aprons, secateurs at the ready.

Now, as her business hits trouble, she’s suffering the usual backlash directed at any woman who is the public face of their company.

Being in that position swings both ways. Customers often buy from women they want to emulate – Victoria Beckham, Charlotte Tilbury, Trinny Woodall.

They want to hear them speak, watch them move, see what they wear. Their personality is a big part of the draw.

But it’s hard work being so visible – and when bad times roll in, it is the woman leading from the front who gets personally attacked.

Often, like perfumer Jo Malone or homeware designer Cath Kidston, you even lose the rights to your own name and have to watch strangers do with it what they will.

I’m sure Sarah Raven will recalibrate her business and will soon be tempting us with her spring bulbs again. 

But perhaps this time with her face slightly less conspicuously on the tin.

Michelle’s hair now has a life of its own

Cherchez la femme, cherchez les cheveux. If you want to know what’s going on with a woman, the best place to look is her hair.

Michelle Obama is the perfect illustration of this truism.

During her First Lady years, Obama’s hair was a straightened helmet – as rigid as Lady Thatcher’s famous shampoo and set. 

Since leaving the White House her hair has taken on a whole new identity.

In the videos that accompany the IMO podcast she shares with her brother Craig, her ever-changing hairdos tell the story of her liberation from the presidential lifestyle. 

Now her daughters have left home and her husband is no longer in office, her life is ‘totally about me’, she claims.

So enter the intricate braids and buns, extensions and weaves that she presumably felt she couldn’t indulge in when her husband was leader of the free world. 

She often looks like a fabulous warrior queen.

I wonder if Rachel Reeves will go wild when she no longer has to convince the country she knows what she’s doing with our economy. 

Will she run free and let that neat bob morph into a rock chick layered shag?

An Astute present that’s fit for a Queen

Some might consider the personalised clingfilm dispenser HMS Astute given to Queen Camilla for her 78th birthday a little odd. Not me. 

The business of severing film from the roll is not part of my skill set and, invariably, I end up with a nasty tangle of the stuff, incapable of keeping anything fresh.

I’m sure the Navy have come up with something a notch above your bog-standard cardboard number. I’d love to know where they got it.

A houseful of clutter – what’s not to love?

What cheering news that the young are apparently turning to analogue entertainment, buying DVDs and even searching out vintage Walkman players to listen to cassettes.

They’ll discover it’s much more satisfying than streaming.

We still have shelves of old record albums and CDs in the house, which I’ve been unable to throw out even though I rarely play them.

They’re like the clothes you keep in your wardrobe which are highly unlikely ever to fit you again. 

You feel content in their company. They are faithful old friends reminding you of times past.