Friday November 16, 1979

_. Mornings are such fun now that The Times has returned from the dark of what looked like extinction.

Something quite shocking has been revealed today. Sir Anthony Blunt, KCVO, Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, 1952-72, and to George VI, 1945-52, has been exposed in Parliament as the 'fourth man' in the Burgess, Maclean and Philby spy scandal of the 1950s and 60s. The Queen was told of this by the then Attorney-General in 1964, but it seems that the then PM Sir Alec Douglas-Home was not told of the facts. It seems that Her Majesty was asked to retain Sir Anthony in the Royal Household because he, in 1964, was granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for information. In effect he became a double agent. No prime ministers until Mrs Thatcher was aware of this intrigue. Today the Queen annulled Professor Blunt's KCVO. It's going to blow up into something big by the look of things.

By bus to Lidget Green at 8:30. Ally and I went on a pub crawl. She was almost fixed up, at one of the more respectable establishments, as an organist for the Christmas period. An old chap there was amazed that Ally could read 'the dots' on the sheet music. Back to Club Street. We sat on the rug until 6am.

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