Tuesday 25th November 2014

Val has been very bad recently. Nothing is good enough. So awful to be sensible and settle for second best. In his own world he is King Emperor. What could be more important than his pinpoint in the universe? But he ought to have been a designer, he says. Being one of the greatest makers, one of the few left who can cut on the bias, who could transform Jasper’s sketches into living frocks, isn’t good enough. It’s a hard calling to be called to want things right and always better. Some (or many?) get the job done and are home by 5. Others can’t bear it and stay on until it’s right. There’s the danger then of madness or drink. ‘What a waste!’ people routinely say when told of Val’s latest descent. I don’t think so. Many other lives are infinitely less vivid although not riddled with drink.

I have a feeling of the last days with Val.

Lord Arrowby only just got to my dinner on Saturday (the rival dinner to the Brixton one) because he was judging an internal Government X-factor competition on a Saturday afternoon. It went on for hours, but was a great success, with a sandwich-trolley lady, not in youth’s first flush, from ‘Constitutional Affairs’, found to be the new Sue-Bo. He says he only eats in August, such is his dedication to affairs of state. Angus Willis too is mad for perfection, but has to survive.