Tuesday 22nd June 2021

Some things I forgot to mention: Royal Gardening. Royal gardening is when you go out after tea and engage in gardening either in the tidying direction, such as dead-heading, or full-scale destruction or trying to tie back a spiky bush that has fallen forward. There is a strict time-limit, however. Although extensive equipment will have been marshalled, after a maximum of 20 minutes, one of the Royal persons will say, ‘I think that’s enough for the time being,’ whereupon the entire assemblage of Royalties will go back indoors. Any debris produced is left for the other gardeners to deal with.

The next thing is the monthly lawyer’s bill: Ralph Kitto was telling me he is on such a scheme. Others have monthly bills such as electricity or mortgage or rent. Only a few have a monthly lawyer’s bill. It is ideal for protracted disputes, such as with other members of one’s family. Often you fork out thousands and thousands, for no result whatsoever. The Gay Mother, come to think of it, has a similar arrangement but not monthly. In this case, the reason for engaging the lawyer in the first place has been long forgotten.

A few weeks ago, Harry Rollo gave a performance. It was a triumph for range and rarity and even just to have it at all, with an oddly face-bandaged audience with gaps, as if they’d all been horribly wounded in World War 1 and some had not survived at all. So a War-Wounded benefit event. Unfortunately I’d been plunged into trauma shortly before the performance. People come to visit one and sometimes one dreads what news they will bring. This one said the situation would not be discussed and then proceeded to discuss it, or rather to make alarming pronouncements which were terrifyingly declared as not to be discussed.

I was plunged into acute nervous attack. Later, at the event after the perf, after a few, I began to wail on the shoulder on Miss Lamore Cellina who had compared Harry’s perf so brilliantly. It was terrible really, for the suffering of the performers is beyond imagination. ‘It’s hell enough being a performer,’ she said. ‘Now this.’ If you can’t perform continually your art fades, not just your fingering, your technique. The nourishing flow between performer and audience is what keeps the coat in show condition, the eyes shining. Without that, the performer begins to die. Then suddenly to give a performance is an immense strain. But Harry had managed it superbly. Some significant performers, Miss Lamore said, have had to become Amazon drivers. The other thing is money. They don’t have any. Nothing forthcoming from the Government. So it’s Amazon driver or starve.

Dreadful.

Harry, accompanied by Mercury, Mr Kitten, has left for Mexico. Their return will be improvised.

I’m much preoccupied with the Duchess of Windsor, formerly Mrs Edward Simpson. I’m to do a 3 hour piece to camera: ‘Wallis Windsor: Hero or Villain? ‘