{"id":740,"date":"2009-12-05T19:07:57","date_gmt":"2009-12-05T19:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/?p=740"},"modified":"2009-12-05T19:13:17","modified_gmt":"2009-12-05T19:13:17","slug":"i-meet-with-lord-arrowby-and-rufus-pitman-at-borough-market-but-first-of-all-delia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/?p=740","title":{"rendered":"I Meet with Lord Arrowby and Rufus Pitman at Borough Market, but First of All, Delia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday 5th<\/sup> December 2009<\/p>\n

So much excitement and I\u2019ve got the tulips in (well, some of them). But I promised you Delia.<\/p>\n

Her book signing was on Thursday at John Lewis, Oxford Street. I didn\u2019t see any of you there, despite my hortations.<\/p>\n

She was stationed at a bleak little table bang in front of the entrance to the food hall, which is really Waitrose. Honey-coloured, frockage battered and scuffed, odd grey sack, not bearing out my theory that the super-rich are a different species, their hue magical and elusive of description. \u2018Not too close,\u2019 she squealed at the bank of photographers, \u2018I\u2019m getting on a bit.\u2019 Voice not of the best.<\/p>\n

And the queue….well….Tim Hely Hutchinson, Britain\u2019s leading publisher (friend of the Multis, quite out of my league: more of a Rich Little Rich Gay by all accounts), apparently decreed, since too many authors were getting self-up, that to be a celebrity you had to attract a crowd of 2000 min to a book signing and<\/em> that the Police had to be present \u2013 on horseback.<\/p>\n

Delia achieved a goodly queue through China and Glass of a few hundred.<\/p>\n

As a Poor Little Rich Gay, lurking behind a frightful accordion-pleated glass vase, while Delia signed (don\u2019t ask about the book: it\u2019s called Delia\u2019s Happy Christmas<\/em>. None of us will be reading it), my situation was perilous. I could hardly be an ordinary member of the public. If I were ever in a news story and described as an ordinary member of the public, do you think I could sue?\u00a0 Or \u2018a motorist\u2019 or \u2018a passer-by\u2019? On the other hand, Poor Little Rich Gays must be at the centre of things, so it\u2019s hopeless trying to ignore celebrities or even names. We must have names to drop. Should we cultivate them and display them at our dinners?\u00a0 I mean the actual people, not just the names. In which case, we might look like toadies.<\/p>\n

What to do? What to do? There is something very fine and intricate to be said about the positioning of the Poor Little Rich Gay in relation to celebrity. But I am not yet able to say it.<\/p>\n

Of course, there is no question of becoming a celebrity oneself \u2013 of any kind. \u00a0The True Poor Little Rich Gay is fractured, incomplete, every minute collapsing and re-forming as something else.<\/p>\n

So I must skip away into light bitchery \u2013 why did Angus Willis fall out with Delia?\u00a0 If I tell, will Delia sue?\u00a0 Will you sue, Delia? Did you really say Angus could edit your copy? Did you give him recipes without lists of ingredients? And wasn\u2019t it just a proof? Couldn\u2019t it all have been changed if you didn\u2019t like it? Apparently you sent an e-mail quite late at night. Angus thinks you might have regretted it the next day but by then it was too late.<\/p>\n

Angus was having none of it.<\/p>\n

Oh no!\u00a0 I\u2019ve left no time for Lord Arrowby and Rufus Pitman. Lord A was divine. And affectionate. I was speechless. Rufus said, \u2018Now, George (for that is Lord Arrowby\u2019s name, you know), it\u2019s just like Mansfield Park<\/em>. The person for you is here all the time.\u2019<\/p>\n

Wasn\u2019t that nice of him? More tomorrow. Rufus had some outstanding perfume thoughts. Also, the Multis had a Chinese lunch – with sherry.<\/p>\n

\"Delia

Delia with her book. Note the Mart Trolleys behind<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday 5th December 2009 So much excitement and I\u2019ve got the tulips in (well, some of them). But I promised you Delia. Her book signing was on Thursday at John Lewis, Oxford Street. I didn\u2019t see any of you there, despite my hortations. She was stationed at a bleak little table bang in front of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adrain-edge"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=740"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":744,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740\/revisions\/744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}