75

3 May 1989

The director of the National Theatre, Richard Eyre, goes to the opening of the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Aspects of Love with Max and Jane Rayne and Princess Margaret, who arrives with Norman St John Stevas. The Princess of Wales is also there. Eyre studies the two Princesses.

Princess Di appears with her friends and, one gathers, her lover, giving us the opportunity to compare and contrast two princesses at close quarters. Princess Margaret gestures emphatically and rather self-consciously, keen to establish the persona of a ‘jolly’ girl, but if it weren’t for the sharp English upper-class voice, you’d say she looks like a Maltese landlady: small, frowning, drawn and unhealthy. Diana is pretty but not beautiful, tall, slightly awkward and faintly pitiable. Margaret talks to me about opera: ‘Can’t stand it. A lot of frightfully boring people standing still onstage and yelling.’

Eyre asks her about Alan Bennett’s new play, A Question of Attribution, which features Sir Anthony Blunt and the Queen. ‘She’s quite tart about it. She didn’t approve of putting the head of state on stage, but would like to watch it from the wings. She’s wary of “Bennett”, she says.’