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Thursday November 5, 1981

 _. Off out into the cold at 7:45. Bounced into the YP with an air of unconcealable efficiency about me. Very pleased that Bob [Cockroft] used my piece about Davina Sheffield announcing her engagement to Jake Morley. I have always liked Davina, and out of all the Prince of Wales's ex-girlfriends I think she is the best. I always hoped she'd be the future Queen.

Queen Gladys?
My phone trilled at 11. It was an excited Ally. The tea lady had just been in her office and announced that the Princess of Wales is pregnant and expecting a child next June. At exactly that time there was a buzz on the newsdesk. Geoff Hemingway, somewhat unfeelingly I think, asked drily who the father might be. This is excellent news. A direct heir to the Crown and the first direct heir to be born since 1948. So, it's either Prince George or Princess Victoria of Wales. I'd be very surprised at Craig, Darren, or Shirley. They have to be so careful naming a future monarch because he/she gives his/her name to the era in which he/she reigns. Just imagine if Queen Victoria had been Gladys? The period of great change, industrial revolution, and progress, the British Empire, Disraeli, the aspidistra, would have gone down in history as the Gladysian era. Would Elizabeth I have held sway over Ye Olde England as Queen Mavis? And what about Elvis the Lionheart?

Home at 6. Ally beaming. We went out at 8 to look at a smoky bonfire. Had a couple of drinks at Mucky Willie's and came home at 9. Ally felt faint and was put to bed. I watched News at 10. We have had a good royal year.

-=-

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Saturday May 19, 1984

A warm, gentle day. Ally and I took off to town with Samuel at 1pm. We didn't take the pram and I carried baby for two hours, by the end...