Pippa Middleton's book is here but Pippa is not

• The younger Middleton will miss the publicity party, with no book tour
• Her book is veddy British, with recipes like Easter Trifle and Toad-in-the-Hole
• She learned party planning at her family's business

Pippa Middleton's long-awaited party-planning book is here; alas, Pippa herself is not.

The younger sister of a future queen got a six-figure payday to write Celebrate: A Year of Festivities for Families and Friends, a 400-page, lavishly illustrated tome on creating perfect British parties. It goes on sale in the USA on Tuesday (Viking, $50).

Do not expect to see Pippa, 29, promoting it in the usual way, touring the country, appearing in bookstores or sitting down with Barbara, Ellen or Oprah to chat.

Her Royal Hotness, as she was dubbed by the British tabloids after the royal wedding last year, is not doing interviews, say Viking PR pooh-bahs. And no wonder: Too much has happened — scandalettes over her tango in Paris with a friend waving a fake gun, topless photos of her sister published in Europe in September — that would lead to nosy questions that neither she nor royal officials want to answer.

Not that it matters. Trumpet blasts of publicity will accompany the book no matter what, even as a historic storm batters the Atlantic seaboard. Already, excerpts have appeared in Britain and here, in Sunday's Parade magazine, which featured "tricks and treats for a royally spooky (Halloween) holiday." Last week, she launched the book with an appearance at a children's Halloween party in London.

The book is full of pictures of delectable British goodies with wacky names — Beef Wellington, Easter Trifle, Toad-in-the-Hole — plus plenty of pics of Pippa herself, the reigning delectable British goodie ever since sister Kate married Prince William last year. Kate became a royal duchess and Pippa, thanks to a pretty face and a lovely rear end, became a princess of the paparazzi.

"It's a bit startling to achieve global recognition before the age of 30, on account of your sister, your brother-in-law, and your bottom," she writes in the first sentence of the book's introduction.

Americans in search of new ideas for home entertaining (having already exhausted the resources of Martha Stewart and her innumerable descendants) should be forewarned: This book, organized by season and holiday, is veddy British, even though the American edition has American spelling.

Boxing Day, Burns Night, Guy Fawkes Day and All Hallows' Feast are not widely celebrated here, and some of these dishes will be either unfamiliar or off-putting to many Yanks — cranachan, kedgeree and haggis, for instance. But it's a credible effort to counter the outdated stereotype of British chefs and cuisine as the unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible.

Advice on picnics and camping, cocktails and beach games is included. Pippa clearly knows how to decorate a table with whimsy and elegance, and she includes games for kids, songs, poetry, a how-to on home preservation, even a guide to star-gazing.

"It is a useful and practical journey into British-themed occasions," Pippa writes, based on her experience working for the Middleton family's online party business, Party Pieces, and for a London events-planning outfit, Table Talk.

While not a gossipy memoir, Pippa does write a little about her favorite parties and about growing up Middleton in the family manse in Bucklebury, Berkshire. She reveals just enough to give readers a tantalizing taste without disturbing her air of mystery. She is seizing a chance to define herself outside the clutches of the media.

"I know many of you will have picked up this book out of nothing more than curiosity," she writes, adding that it's strange to have seen so much written about her "when I have done little to paint a picture of myself. This is my first chance to do that and I've enjoyed every minute of it."