EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Charlotte Carew Pole mission of mercy – delivering an ambulance to Ukraine 

She has campaigned to abolish the aristocratic tradition of male primogeniture, and now Charlotte Carew Pole is determined to prove that driving to a war zone is not just the preserve of macho men.

Just as novelist Ernest Hemingway drove an ambulance for the American Red Cross on the Italian front in World War I, Carew Pole is leading a convoy of six medical vehicles stashed with life-saving gear in a 48-hour mad dash to the Ukraine border.

Charlotte, 45, who lives on the 2,000-acre Antony estate in Cornwall, is among 12 drivers selected to take on the arduous 1,300-mile voyage with no breaks. 

She will take it in turns with co-driver Mary Macleod, a former Tory MP who helped her introduce a private members’ bill to end hereditary titles passing only to men. 

Ukrainian refugees crowd into the various support points of the train station in Krakow, Poland on March 14, 2022

A Ukraine soldier inspects the rubble of a destroyed apartment building in Kyiv on March 15, 2022

The mother-of-two, whose father-in-law, Sir Richard Carew Pole, is a baronet, can drive the ambulance thanks to her licence for horse boxes.

‘We’re going to plough on through the night to get there,’ she told me before setting off from Cheltenham yesterday.

‘We’ll cross the Channel, then onto Germany and down into Poland to the border. We can’t say where exactly, just in case.

‘It will be exhausting, but I couldn’t have a better co-driver. From there, we’ll link up with the Global Outreach Doctors charity, who will take the ambulances and all the gear into Ukraine.’

Keith Richards isn’t letting the world’s current troubles spoil his outlook. 

‘I’m sitting on a tropical island, I can see the ocean, and palm trees. I’m doing all right, I’m trying to see the winter out,’ says the guitarist, 78, who will celebrate the Rolling Stones’ 60th anniversary with two Hyde Park shows this summer. 

Stay safe, Keef! In 2006, he needed surgery after falling out of a coconut tree in Fiji.

Is Cats composer going to the dogs?

Is West End star Samantha Barks really barking? 

The actress, who plays Elsa in Disney’s £10 million stage production of Frozen, took her cavapoochon, Ivy, when she met Lord Lloyd-Webber at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. 

West End star Samantha Barks enjoys afternoon tea with Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and their dogs at the Theatre Royal on Drury Lane 

‘Ivy was thrilled to be having afternoon tea at The Lane with Andrew Lloyd Webber and his lovely dog, Mojito [a Havanese puppy],’ she says.

Surely, it’s only a matter of time before Lloyd Webber, who composed Cats, creates a musical about dogs…

A very cosy siesta for sleepy Sienna

A night of tireless revelling took its toll on former party girl Sienna Miller, who found a comfortable place to rest her weary head.

The British actress, 40, fell asleep on the ample bosom of her friend and fellow Hollywood star Salma Hayek, 55, after the Bafta awards.

Mexico-born Salma, who’s married to French luxury goods heir Francois-Henri Pinault, 59, shared this touching photograph with her fans yesterday next to the caption: ‘Sienna siesta.’ 

Sienna Miller, 40, fell asleep on the ample bosom of her friend and fellow Hollywood star Salma Hayek, 55, after the Bafta awards

Both actresses, who were promoted by disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, have spoken out about the abuse they suffered while working with him.

Sienna claimed Weinstein reduced her to tears early in her film career after he told her to stop socialising. 

She said: ‘He called me into his office. He sat me down, stood up, and said: ‘You’re not partying any more.’ ‘

The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee concert tonight will see the Royal Albert Hall ‘covered in blue and yellow lights’ to create an image of Ukraine’s flag as the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra plays the country’s national anthem. 

Soprano Laura Wright, a royal favourite since she performed at the Diamond Jubilee, tells me she’s ‘incredibly honoured’ to be singing God Save The Queen tonight while ‘heavily pregnant’. 

Interestingly, the royals in attendance will be Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. He has come under scrutiny for his cosy links with Russia.

Love in the air for Mr Darcy 

He made hearts flutter emerging from a lake in breeches and a dripping wet cotton shirt as dashing Mr Darcy in Pride And Prejudice, but Colin Firth failed to be recognised in his newsboy cap and thick-rimmed specs.

The Oscar winner, 61, was visiting an outdoor cafe with girlfriend, Maggie Cohn, a U.S screenwriter thought to be in her 40s.

Colin Firth with girlfriend and US screenwriter Maggie Cohn

Firth — who separated from his wife of 22 years, Livia Giuggioli, in 2019 — has been courting Cohen since they met last year on the set of forthcoming American crime drama The Staircase.

Could this be love, actually?

When Georgia Toffolo won I’m A Celebrity, her prize was just a crown of flowers and the Queen of the Jungle title.

Yesterday, she had much better luck at Cheltenham. 

The former Made In Chelsea star, 27, predicted the winner and runner-up in the Supreme Novices Hurdle race, returning £37,500 on a £2,500 bet. 

‘Beginner’s luck,’ Toff exclaims. ‘Generous donation incoming to both the British Red Cross and The Disasters Emergency Committee.’

Fury at attack on nude statue of feminist icon

Most people are inspired by Ukraine flags at the moment, but one has infuriated the mother of actress Saffron Burrows after it was wrapped round a nude statue of feminist campaigner Mary Wollstonecraft.

‘My husband saw these silly bloody women had stuck a Ukrainian flag over the statue’s naked body and covered it with placards with aggressive messages,’ Susie Burrows says of the art work by Maggi Hambling in a North London park.

Speaking at a preview of an art show by her actress friend Lorien Haynes at Burgh House, Hampstead, Susie tells me: ‘My husband helped pay for this — we are very upset.

‘He donated £10,000 because we believe in women’s equality, so this is a disgrace. It is not feminism. 

‘There are plenty of male naked statues out there [the vandals could have chosen].’