Wednesday 13th March 2013

Really, the big news is: Who’s the new Pope? White smoke just this minute!  Val thinks it might be him. He will be Celestine V. Or maybe Al Forno 1. And, speaking of Val … who was the Mrs Onassis-level figure who, on Monday, drove Val, our most glorious as well as most lavishly refreshed Poor Little Rich Gay, from Chelsea Harbour, where he’d been looking at printed velvets with Genevieve Suzy, to Notting Hill?

But my Charity Dinner for Aids Ark was on Saturday. My first Charity Dinner in fact – that is, given by me. Only £40 required per head, to raise £300, enough to pay for one person’s HIV treatment for a year in Africa or wherever. We managed to double the amount because some were invited, such as Prince Dmitri Hersov, Frankie-Doreen May and Giles Ullerston, and still donated although unable to come. Then Peter Acharya’s great mega-business will match, making it double.

All the same, how charitable are Poor Little Rich Gays?

The Multis, Bruce MacBain, Peter Acharya, Ned Czernowski, Aunt Lavinia, Aunt Lavinia’s friend never met before, Camilla (very finished in bronze shot silk and v. up in all the names – Lewis and Wood, Missoni, Beethoven: she knew them all) and Bruce MacBain’s friend, Anna Klein, of the museum world dined. Peter said he wished to holiday in the Falkland Islands rather than the Caribbean; Bruce MacBain had been lunching with a Society lady for whom he supplied cushions and bath taps in the 80s, (before he became what he afterwards became) and was thought to be calling Aunt Lavinia an antiquity. He was actually referring to her collection of Minoan statues but nobody would believe him. Which just goes to show – if a group of 8 can make a fiction, what can a whole nation do?

Some were more right-wing than others in the party. Aunt Lavinia’s voice has ruled England for generations. We’re becoming a more divided society. I wonder where they will erect the guillotine  – in Sloane Street?

I was going to describe the food. The whole point was to describe the food – the Masterchef level to which we all aspire now.

But I must dash for the theatre where I see Screw’s Turn with Robert Nevil. I’ve got some rather old beetroot for him afterwards. A little old ladies’ supper at home after the theatre – shawls and invalid food, even if awff.

The other important news is that Lord Arrowby is go on the stage – for one night only, which one a secret, he’s to play Sir Robert Morton in the new production of The Winslow Boy at the Old Vic. We’re also to attend as members of the audience, next Friday although it hasn’t been confirmed.