Thursday February 7, 1980

_. I continue to be riddled with disease and infection, and Sarah continues to run in the opposite direction when I appear.

Lady Doris and the Queen Mother.

Saw a Times death notice for Lady Doris Vyner, the Queen Mother's greatest friend, and I think bridesmaid. She's died aged 84. She lived at Studley Royal, near Ripon, but I think handed it to the National Trust in the '40s. I typed some background and handed it to Geoff Hemingway on the EP newsdesk. He snapped it up and an obituary made it into the EP with a photo of Lady Doris and the Queen Mother on the steps at Studley Royal in 1947. Geoff asked me if I intended spending the rest of my life in the library at which I immediately replied: 'Of course not'. He said he would speak to me on this topic later. It's warming to think that some people think there's more to Michael Rhodes than library fodder.

Bit of a disaster this evening. I phoned Auntie Mabel and told her I would journey to Pudsey by train at 5pm, and that I'd meet Ally in Pudsey. I left the YP at 4:45 and climbed onto a train on what I thought was Bradford bound only to discover that I was hurtling towards Dewsbury. In Dewsbury no call boxes were in working order, and so I couldn't alert Auntie M of my delay. I took at train back to Leeds, arriving at 6:30.  I know just how frantic Auntie Mabel will be. Aunts are notorious for worrying, and fearing the worst, and I suppose she has me lying dead beneath some rusting rolling stock. I got to my aunt's at 7:45. She howled with laughter. She howled again on the phone to Mum, and on the phone to Ally, who had left and gone to Lynn's. Ally with Lynn and Dave arrived at 8:30, and we dined until 10.

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