Tuesday October 6, 1981

 _. Hideous day. Heavy rain. Left Ally in bed at 7:45. Dr Glover visted her at 10, who told her that she has suffered a miscarriage, and that the loss most likely occurred on September 26. Poor Darling. _____. He did say that depending on a test she might have to go into hospital. He told her to stay in bed.

I got home from work at 6 and we sat on the bed together. Mum and Dad called in and stayed until after 8. Dad took me to the fish and chip shop and bought my dinner. We discussed demolishing and re-arranging the kitchen.

Ally, reclining on the settee, propped up by cushions, is very stoic. If an unborn child was developing badly, it is best that it has gone.

News: President Sadat of Egypt was assassinated this afternoon in Cairo. It's only a month since the Prince and Princess of Wales entertained him on the Royal Yacht Britannia. The Middle East will now be in turmoil.

Watched TV. The Horse of the Year Show on the BBC gave way to 'Sadat is Dead' with the Dimbleby circus. It's a fact that I am more aware of the Middle East crisis that our Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington, who is sleeping in his bed, blissfully unaware, at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Australia.

Such a horrible day.

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Monday October 5, 1981

 _. Up at 6:30 but ignored the alarm clock until 7:20. Ally, exhausted, remained under her pink quilt. I went to Leeds and phoned Dr Gover. His receptionist went to talk to him and came back with the message that he'll call and see Ally 'one day this week' and that she should remain in bed. She can't go to bed indefinitely - what will Derek Jenkins say?

YP gloomy. 'Mrs Slocombe' has moved into the Cookridge home of ex-President Jimmy Carter look-alike. Sarah announced that 'I might never marry', in a manner somewhat reminiscent of Queen Elizabeth I.

Phoned Mum about Ally. She likes a daily bulletin. The three piece suite returns today from the re-upholsterers. The Pine Tops sitting room now resembles Woburn Abbey.

Home at 6 to find Ally preparing dinner, a casserole. We ate by candlelight. We sat afterwards reading the newspapers. Lord Harewood's autobiography has been published. Did he really kill the poor Princess Royal with his divorce news?

Beethoven, coffee, and Charles Dickens.

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Sunday October 4, 1981

 _. 16th Sunday after Trinity

Warm and bright. A fine day for a baptism. We spent all morning in bed. Auntie Hilda phoned to say that the photographer at Jill and Tim's wedding had forgotten to put a film in his camera on the day. Jill is grief stricken.

The parish church.

To Burley with Mum and Dad at 2:30. Joined by Sue [the godmother], Peter, Chris Baker [the godfather], and Julie, and a host of other unmentionable Bakers. At 3 we wheeled Frances across the road to the parish church where she was baptized at 3:15 in the names Frances Anne, by the Rev Donald [?] Aldred.  The baby objected only very briefly and remained wide-eyed throughout. Susan and Chris were the only sponsors. Back to Lawn Road at 3:45 for a buffet, after a photoshoot in the churchyard. Lots of drink. Mum is never at ease with Audrey Baker. They just never seem to 'hit it off'.

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Saturday October 3, 1981

 _. Up at 7:30 to the sound of the postman. The photographs of Catherine and David's wedding have arrived. We sat in bed looking at the pics. I left Ally in bed.

I went out and bought a conifer and a bag of John Innes potting compost. Came back and spent a couple of hours in the garden like Percy Thrower. 

Mum phoned to say they were in Leeds. I said we'd go over and welcome them back at 7.

An interesting story in the press. A local gent by the name of Nicholas Crosse died last week at the age of 50 and it is rumoured that he was the bastard son of the Duke of Windsor. I don't think it plausible. In 1930 at the time of Crosse's birth the then Prince of Wales was entwined in the grasping arms of Thelma, Viscountess Furness. His long standing relationship with Freda Dudley Ward was drawing to a close, and Mrs Simpson was looming on the horizon. Edward liked his women, but did he go around inpregnating the petty bourgeois wives of minor Bradford wool merchants? It has always been rumoured that the Duke of Windsor was sterile. Certainly, from the time of the birth of Princess Elizabeth in 1926 Queen Mary was very aware the child would one day reign. 

Went to Guiseley at 6:30 with booze and cushions. Mum and Dad came in at 7. Not as tanned as I thought they would be. We stayed the night. Watched the film 'Julia' with Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave.

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Friday October 2, 1981

 _. I went at lunchtime to Leeds Market and bought bananas and leeks, and meat for the week. I am very much like my grandfather Wilson in this respect. He liked nothing better than to be let loose in an old fashioned market with a shopping bag. I can picture him now, coming down Market Place, at Goldthorpe, bearing a bag with fresh foul, feet poking out, and heaps of veg, for Mum. One of my earliest memories is of Grandad plucking a turkey on the kitchen table at Christmas, 1959.

Home at 6 to find Ally a vision in pink. She phoned Bessie. We dined on pork chops, &c. Sat afterwards reading the Times and listening to Beethoven. All that was missing was a pipe of ready rubbed. 

Dave G phoned. He's coming here on Friday Oct 16 for the weekend. In bed at 11 attempting to watch an Alain Delon film but fell asleep.

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Thursday October 1, 1981

 _. I came home at 1pm and found Ally snoozing beneath a large volume of the works of Daphne Du Maurier. It poured with rain, heavily, all day. We sat eating beans on toast discussing money. We aren't doing too badly really.

Sat sticking honeymoon photos into an album, looking out at the grey, watery streets. Were we on a scorched Greek island only two months ago?

At 4:30 I went over to the Co-op and filled a plastic bag with vital necessities. Spent £7.50 on green toilet rolls and pots of yoghurt. Bought Ally some bright yellow flowers.

Dined on fried eggs and chips. In bed at 7:20 watching 'Top of the Pops'. I must be growing old. I fail to understand the appeal of some of the so called new music.

News: Mr Trudeau is asking the Queen for independence for Canada. Lord Ampthill, who famously was the baby in the 1920s Russell legitimacy case, has been appointed a director of the YP. Malcolm Barker brought the peer into the office today. Yer real life lords are two a penny at the Yorkshire Post.

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Wednesday September 30, 1981

 _. JPH is five today and at school. Postcard from Mum and Dad in Alassio - a picture of the Pope's palace at Avignon. Dad is swimming, she says, as she watches, and both are lapping up the wine. They return on Saturday.

Phoned Ally at 11. Home at 6. Had a huge dinner. Went over to the corner shop for a packet of biscuits. In Bradford you cannot buy lemon puffs for love nor money.

We were in bed from 7:30. News: Labour party conference bunkum. Lord Boyle of Handsworth is dead, and so is Bill Shankly. The BBC treat his demise as though he's s world leader cut down in the prime of life. This 68-year-old alcoholic Scot was the manager of a prominent football club, apparently. 

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Tuesday September 29, 1981

 _. 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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Monday September 28, 1981

 _. 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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Sunday September 27, 1981

JPH: Fenian.

 _. 15th Sunday after Trinity

The children were playing at garages outside our bedroom door at about 6:30am. Breakfast consisted of eggs, bacon, tinned tomatoes. John and I went to inspect Sandy, the goat. John has always had a rapport with the animal kingdom. I do miss John and wish we could see more of him. JPH, is in Lynn's words, a 'Fenian', an old expression of my grandmother Rhodes.

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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Saturday September 26, 1981

Port Patrick.

 _. Heavy rain. All at the cottage until after 3 and then we drove to Port Patrick and ate damp hot dogs at a take-away on the harbour there. 

Back at Corner House. Some whisky, but not too much. Bed at 10.

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