Pippa Middleton life and biography

Philippa Charlotte "Pippa" Middleton is the only sister of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. A party organizer, she is known because of her sister and through the reporting of society news. She was the maid of honour at her sister's Royal Wedding on 29 April 2011.

Born in 1983, Middleton is the second of the three children of Michael Middleton (born 1949), at the time a British Airways flight dispatcher, by his marriage in 1980 at Dorney to Carole Goldsmith (born 1955), a former flight attendant. Her father's family came from Leeds, in Yorkshire, and one of her great-grandmothers, called Olivia Lupton, belonged to a business family active in Leeds for generations. Through Olivia Lupton, her ancestors include The Rev. Thomas Davis, a Church of England hymn-writer. Carole Middleton's mother's family were labourers and miners from County Durham. The third child of the family is James William Middleton (born 1987), now a business man.

In the mid-1980s, when her two eldest children were at a pre-school and the family was living at Bradfield Southend, Middleton's mother set up 'Party Pieces', a company which began by making party bags and which now sells party supplies and decorations by mail order. By 1995 the firm, run by both parents, was so successful that it moved into a range of farm buildings at Ashampstead Common, and since then the Middleton parents are reported to have become millionaires.
In 1995, the Middletons moved to Bucklebury, Berkshire. Like her sister, Middleton was initially educated at St Andrew's School, Pangbourne, then at Downe House, a girls' boarding school in Cold Ash, and finally at Marlborough College, Wiltshire. She then followed her sister to higher education in Scotland, attending the University of Edinburgh to study English literature. There she shared a house with Lord Edward Innes-Ker, a son of the Duke of Roxburghe, and with Earl Percy, heir of the Duke of Northumberland.

Following graduation, in 2008 Middleton took a job with Table Talk, a company based in London which organizes events and parties. Also in 2008, Tatler magazine named Middleton "the Number 1 Society Singleton", beating the singer-songwriter James Blunt and Princess Eugenie. Since then, she has often been described as a socialite. As part of a duo with her older sister, Middleton has received wide press coverage, focusing on her social life and her lifestyle.

In 2009, Middleton took up tobogganing on the Cresta Run at St Moritz, with the multi-millionaire Trevor Baines as her instructor. She is also a good shot and in 2008 shot twenty-three game birds in a day in Scotland. For several years on Burns Night, accompanied by bagpipes, Middleton has carried the haggis into a pub called the Old Boot Inn at Stanford Dingley in Berkshire.

The Daily Telegraph reported in 2010 that Middleton's parents had ambitious plans to expand their company, Party Pieces, and wanted their daughter Pippa to take an increasingly prominent role.

Following the official announcement of her sister's engagement to Prince William on 23 November 2010, the Daily Mail commented "Ironically, family friends of the Middletons say that everyone always thought that the sparkly Pippa rather than the quieter and less glossy Kate would be the one most likely to make a spectacular marriage." Middleton was immediately tipped to be the chief bridesmaid at the planned Royal wedding. This was confirmed and widely reported, although in the event the title used for the position was maid of honour. It was also suggested that Middleton took on the role of the chief planner of the wedding itself.

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