Pippa Middleton lands role as contributing editor of Vanity Fair to the horror of many journalists

Pippa Middleton, sister of the Duchess of Cambridge, has been announced as the latest contributing editor to Conde Nast’s Vanity Fair magazine. "We're delighted to have Pippa as a contributor to Vanity Fair," says editor Graydon Carter. "She's a keen observer of classic British pastimes. She is also an avid sportswoman, and we look forward to her take on traditional English pursuits, beginning with Wimbledon." However, the appointment of Middleton, who in the past ten months has published a highly mocked party tips book and contributed to Waitrose magazine, has not gone down well with journalists, authors and many readers of Vanity Fair. Comments on Vanity Fair’s website included one from ‘carrona’ who said: “VF just became the equivalent of a cheap rag. Who next? Obama's dry-cleaner? In the UK, P Middleton is a joke. Your 'real' journalists must have been apoplectic when they heard this news.”Similarly, others took to Twitter to criticise the choice, including The Sunday Times associate editor Eleanor Mills and novelist Maggie Alderson.

Christopher Hitchens was my favourite ever contributing editor forVanity Fair. Don't think Pippa Middleton will have the same effect.

— Caitlin McBride (@mcbride_caitlin) June 6, 2013

Is Pippa Middleton's new column for Vanity Fair a spoof? So anodyne (make sure u get to Wimbledon for the tennis early, don't wear heels)

— Eleanor Mills (@EleanorMills) June 6, 2013

And I so wish Christopher Hitchens was still alive to welcome Pippa Middleton to the @vanityfair editorial team...

— Maggie Alderson (@MaggieA) June 6, 2013

Pippa Middleton writing for Vanity Fair... Dorothy Parker is rolling in Conde Nast's grave.

— R/GA (@RGA) June 5, 2013

Her first column is on Wimbledon, and has included details of how she and her sister would queue to get tickets for a match. “Queuing from 5am on ‘People’s Sunday’ in 2004 with my sister for three hours and getting £35 tickets on Centre Court; my first time ever,” she recalls. “Seats were a free-for-all, and I recall almost tripping over myself trying to get as close as possible to my birthday-twin British hero Tim Henman.”