Ephraim Hardcastle
PLAYWRIGHT Harold Pinter pleaded, in one of his torrid 1960s love letters to broadcaster Joan Bakewell, now 84, for her to ‘write, write, write, write, write’ to him. Yet not one missive from Joan to Harold appears in the 12,000 letters he sold – along with his papers – to the British Library for £1.1million in 2007. However, all of his embarrassingly-juvenile, sex-drenched bulletins to Joan – whom he refers to as ‘lovely, giving, taking girlness’ – are included in the 212 boxes of papers she has sold to the British Library for £55,000. The BL confirms: ‘The other side of the correspondence is not in the Pinter archive.’ So where are her letters to Pinter? Lady Antonia Fraser says she was not involved in preparing her husband’s archive.
LABOUR’S former deputy leader, Harriet Harman MP, 67, champions her party’s allfemale shortlists, telling BBC Breakfast: ‘It was what we needed to do to make the change.’ Yet Harriet’s husband, former trade union boss Jack Dromey, 69, became the party’s MP in Birmingham Erdington in 2010 despite the constituency originally being earmarked for an all-women shortlist. Outspoken feminist Ms Harman made no complaint.
AS the centenary of women’s suffrage is celebrated, the broom cupboard behind the organ in the Palace of Westminster chapel is in the news again. Suffragette Emily Wilding Davison hid there in 1911. She later died after throwing herself under George V’s horse at the 1913 Derby. In 1991, Tony Benn had a plaque erected commemorating Ms Davison. Sadly it was the setting for a seedy event last year. The BBC’s adaptation of Louise Doughty’s story Apple Tree Yard had a scene in which Emily Watson, 51, pictured, had sexual intercourse with Ben Chaplin, 47, in the iconic cupboard.
INVITATIONS to the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are ready to go out – mostly by special delivery to avoid them falling into the wrong hands. As the Mail has reported, royal black sheep Sarah Ferguson is to be invited. ‘Prince Harry knows what it’s like to have a mother frozen out of the inner royal circle,’ comments a source.
RE the Ferguson invitation, Princess Diana’s one-time personal chef Darren McGrady comments: ‘Why would Fergie get an invite to the wedding? Harry has no relationship with her, not even as a kid. So many times Princess Diana invited Fergie over for tea with the boys and she backed out at the last minute.’ If true, doesn’t it make Harry’s kindly gesture even more impressive?
DEFENCE Secretary Gavin Williamson, 41, has been summoned by the Prince of Wales who, as an Admiral of the Fleet, is concerned about defence cuts. A source tells me: ‘Williamson isn’t trusted yet by some old salts. He was recently heard referring to a room full of naval bigwigs as “Uncle Alberts” after the curmudgeonly ex-Merchant Navy character from the TV show Only Fools And Horses.’