Monday September 1, 1975

The first of September. I cannot decide if the year's gone really quickly or not. _____.

Lynn passed two more 'O' levels today, so now she's got seven 'O' levels. I have four, and Sue has two.______.

See in one of the cheaper Sunday papers that the fiend who's been pestering Princess Anne over the past weeks actually never heard the princess on the phone or has uttered a word to anyone at Oak Grove House. He was dismissed from his Post Office job for eaves-dropping. I think it is only right and proper under the circumstances. __________.

Oh, by the way. On Friday I wrote a lengthy letter to 'George' under the pretence that it was from Lord Macdonald of Sleat, Chief of the Macdonald clan. She rang at 6.30 to talk about it. Her Mum's been in hysterics all day about it and she's still laughing herself under the table now. Judith Rushworth may well be right when she says I should write a novel. Harold Pinter may be able to knock off Lady Antonia Fraser, but I bet I can write much better than he can.

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Tuesday August 6, 1974

Hot day - which makes a change. This summer will go down in history as 'the summer that never was'. Hear from Lynn tonight that she is the proud possessor of five 'O' levels. That is one more than me. Feel really happy for her.

Denise rings me at work and asks if I'd like to go to Scamps, the disco at Bradford, tonight. I plead insanity and say I have no money, which is perfectly true. She doesn't really object and we promise to meet on Friday at lunchtime again.

Nice day at the YP but too warm for comfort. Home at 5.45. Ring Marita after tea who says she's completed her decorating now and for the duration of the conversation I had the feeling that she was concentrating seriously on something else. I ask: "Have you seen Michael today?" She answers: "Yes. He's here now." I make a speedy exit from the line. The poor sods are in love_________.I keep getting different reports from private sources about __ but knowing ___ like I do_________.

No real news to report this week other than the fact that horrid President Nixon finally admitted that he knew about 'Watergate' all along. Disgusting American politics is not a subject I wish to dwell on.

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Monday February 4, 1974

Climb out of bed at 7.30. Hear on the news that 11 people were killed by a bomb in Leeds early this morning. The dead were travelling on a coach from Manchester to Catterick. The victims are obviously army personnel and families.

Spend the afternoon tracing the address of a Leeds woman who collects everything she can lay her hands on about the Queen - eventually make a discovery. Quite an interesting read in the meantime reading through old royal headlines. The announcement of Her Majesty's birth took approximately eight lines of an inside page of the YP when she came into the world in 1926 - they cannot have known then that the baby would one day be the mother of Princess Anne!

The Court Circular in The Times refers to to the Queen's daughter as "The Princess Anne, Mrs Mark Phillips" - a romantic, but hideous notion.

On my arrival home I see that I have had no luck with my exams again - failure. Don't particularly worry about not attaining immortal fame as a historian. If being good at history turns you into an AJP Taylor I'd rather not bother! MM rings at 6.30. Chris passed! (According to Christine B anyway). He ring me (Chris) from London and I tell him that he's passed. He is very sceptical about it all. He cannot really trust messages from MM and Christine.

See 'Colditz' in the evening. Bed at 11. Having having a shower first. PS - the miners voted 81 per cent in favour of a strike. The TUC leaders met Mr Heath and Mr Whitelaw at 10, Downing Street this evening. The Government can't make the miners change their minds, and poor little Willie Whitelaw couldn't even appease his grandmother.

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