WHILE the volcanic ash has caused minor inconveniences for some people, its impact on author and journalist Giles Coren has been far more significant. Mr Coren, who lives in Kentish Town, is due to marry Hampstead Garden Suburb resident Esther Walker on S

WHILE the volcanic ash has caused minor inconveniences for some people, its impact on author and journalist Giles Coren has been far more significant.

Mr Coren, who lives in Kentish Town, is due to marry Hampstead Garden Suburb resident Esther Walker on Saturday, but the ceremony will go ahead without more than 10 per cent of the couple's guests who are stranded overseas.

Speaking to the Ham&High, Mr Coren said: "I'm definitely down one usher who's in Bequia in the Carribean, and my best friend from when I was a little boy at The Hall School is an academic in Atlanta, and the earliest he'll be able to get here is Saturday."

Mr Coren's mother is also doubtful for the ceremony, although she may be able to travel back from France by Eurostar on Thursday, while Claudia Winkleman will be absent as she is unable to return from the Maldives in time.

Miss Walker and Mr Coren are intending to invite "substitute" guests to the ceremony, who will not mind being drafted in as back-up.

"It's a bit of a shame," said Mr Coren. "But we are trying to retain the sense of it not being a disaster so much as an opportunity.