_. I made fried liver and onions and we ate on trays in bed at 7:30pm. Afterwards, still in bed, I had a large drink with bobbing ice cubes, watching Burt Lancaster in 'The Birdman of Alcatraz'. Ally, sticking with Daphne Du Maurier, is now reading 'My Cousin Rachel'.
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_. Up at 6:30 and in the bath. Ally stayed in bed until 10.
News: Healey won the Labour leadership squabble, but only temporarily. The Princess of Wales has appointed three ladies in waiting. Her third cousin once removed Lavinia Baring, Hazel Alston-Roberts-West, and Anne Beckwith-Smith. No shady former flatmates included here, all traditional household appointments.
Ally went to see Dr Glover at 12:30. ____________.
Home at 6. I made lamb chops for dinner, after a chilled Martini. Ally phoned her parents to be told her mother is ill in bed after drinking too much champagne at Goodwood Races.
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| JPH: Fenian. |
We left at about 1. A hideous journey. Lynn felt car sick and threw up at Carrutherstown. I sat holding the baby. Home in Bradford for 7:30. Asleep, unconscious for 9:30.
What became of the Labour leadership election? I forgot to listen to the news.
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| Port Patrick. |
Back at Corner House. Some whisky, but not too much. Bed at 10.
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_. Lord Cornwallis is not dead. He was prematurely reported to have died. A Daily Telegraph error. Heads will be rolling on Fleet Street.
Home at 1 to find Ally, clad in blue. We squabbled. On to Burley at 2, and half an hour later we were in Dave's speedy vehicle heading for Scotland. Ally and I had custody of Frances in the back seat. She's incredible with little fat, brown legs. The replica of a Giles cartoon, all cheeks and flared nostrils.
Towns flashed by. Kirkby Lonsdale, Gretna, Annan, Dumfries, Carrutherstown, Gatehouse of Fleet, &c. It was fine to begin with but the rain set in as we went further north. Arrived at Corner House Cottage, Lochans, at 7. John has done a spectacular job. The birthday boy is also the proud possessor of a Billy Goat called Sandy, and he's living in great comfort. Maria is smoking more, eating less. JPH loves limericks, the majority very rude. He was caught attempting to insert a cocktail stick into baby Frances's ear, apparently to remove the excess ear wax.
 |
| Corner House Cottage. |
Home at 12:30. Maria decided to drive without car lights. We sat screaming as the vehicle traversed the dark, country lanes. Sat with Lynn and Dave listening to a Buddy Holly LP.
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_. Pay day. See in the Daily Telegraph that Lord Cornwallis is dead. He was president of the MCC for many years.
Home at and spent a couple of hours stuffing clothes into bags and stripping the house of vital provisions required for our Scottish jaunt. We went to the supermarket for some last minute things and bumped into Graham Wiles, the EP reporter, rummaging through the packs of frozen lasagne.
Ally ironing [again]. Watched 'Fanny By Gaslight' a new series. We have had a postcard from Graham & Charlotte Smith, in Luxor, Egypt.
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_. Felt exhausted all day. I must be growing old.
At the YP, Sat reading the dull morning newspapers. Shocked by a photo of Moss Evans, of the TGWU. He is obviously going the same way as Lord Boyle of Handsworth. From a Harry Secombe shape to Mahatma Gandhi in the space of three months.
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| Rippon: romance? |
Sarah has announced that she wants to marry Trevor before Christmas, perhaps on Dec 19. Register offices at the moment are refusing to marry people on a Saturday, but knowing Sarah she'd prefer to marry mid-week, like toffs do.
Home at 6 with a heavy head. Ally feeling not much better. ____________.
Mum and Dad have arrived at the Hotel Adler, in Alessio, where they will remain for a week.
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| Bassey: Goldfinger. |
Home at 6. Spent two hours preparing dinner with Ally. Jill and Tim, the honeymooners, came to dine at 8. Homemade mushroom soup, grilled steak with chips, peas, corn, leek, fried mushrooms, cheesecake, chocolate cake, cream. Lutomer Riesling. They are a marvellous couple, and highly suited, and so 'easy going'.
Bed at 1am. Mum and Dad are at Cavaillon.
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_. I don't like Mondays. It was a hardship saying goodbye to Ally. Is this the way our life is going to be until I'm 65? Working or sleeping?
Gloom at the YP. Sarah had a face like a wet weekend. 'Mrs Slocombe' has returned from her Geneva sojourn with the ex-President Jimmy Carter look-alike. Mrs S looks very pale and I suspect she will have indentations from bed springs deep into her back.
Home at 6. Pork chops. Kitten was a hive of industry tonight. Washing, ironing, bed changing.
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| Foot: crutches |
Mum and Dad are at Rully, in the Saône-et-Loire, tonight. Lucky buggers. Bed at 11 after a Michael Caine epic. Ally was collapsed over a Agatha Christie.
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_. 14th Sunday after Trinity
We said goodbye to Mum and Dad at about 9pm last night. They left for the continent at 7am, staying tonight at Dunkirk. It all shrieks of the Second World War and not a holiday.
We slept until about 11 and had a long, leisurely luncheon. Roast beef, flat Yorkshire puds, &c.
 |
| Hardy as Churchill. |
Did nothing but watch TV and listen to the radio. I cannot decide whether I like the latest Churchill drama. It's hard to imagine Winnie and Clem tucked up in bed together. They are too recent. It's perhaps easier to see Queen Anne in bed, or the Duke of Wellington or Lord Kitchener [who according to Lady Diana Cooper, liked to be flogged by boys], but not Winston.
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_. Sunny and blustery. Was splashing in the bath at 8:30. We were ready for 11. Ally, quite stunning, in her tulip dress. We had a photo shoot in the garden. The neighbours, behind their nets, envious of our high social life. Our comings and goings have brought a touch of Edwardian splendour to this quiet Lidget Green enclave.
Met Mum, Dad, Sue & Pete at noon in the Farmers Arms, Thornbury, and went on to Pudsey Parish Church at 12:45, overtaking Uncle Tony and the bride in their stately Rolls Royce on the way. Wedding was at 1. The vicar, obviously going for the world record, had them married by 1:15 and out onto the lawn for a lengthy photographic session with a fat fellow in a demob suit. In church Tim shook throughout, slightly more worried about the rupture in the Elmer family and where it might lead, than his performance before the vicar. Auntie Mabel wailed throughout. It was perhaps the hymn 'O Perfect Love' that did it.
The receeption was held at Pudsey Civic Hall. Baby Frances took a lot of the attention. She is perhaps one of the finest babies I have seen. I know the current baby is always the finest, but she is a wonder.
Back to Wilsby at 5. No punch ups. Back to the Civic Hall at 7:30, in pouring rain, for a party until midnight. A vast and merry throng too numerous to mention. Joined by Dave L. We sat with Lynn and Dave but I cannot recall any of the conversation. You know how I forget things after a long day with heavy spirits. Home wet at 12. We were invited back to Wilsby but thought the better of it.
[Photographs to accompany the entry to follow]
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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...
