THIS IS THE first volume of collected pieces to appear for five years. It is also the first volume to appear consisting entirely of articles which first saw the light of day in the Mail on Sunday as opposed to the Sunday Times, my previous platform. The move to the Mail more or less coincided with our move six months later to Gloucestershire from London. This will become clear to the reader, who will no doubt notice a more rural atmosphere among the choice of subjects. I am particularly pleased to see this book appear as it has given me the chance, once again, to repair the ravages of newspaper sub-editors and in some cases to add or expand a little bit where the exigencies of space led to hasty and sometimes ill considered cuts being made. In the piece about Princess Michael (which caused so much trouble), for example, I wrote ‘Occasionally she can be manipulative’ which the paper changed to ‘She can be very manipulative’. This, I am sure the reader will agree, puts a different perspective on the matter.
Moving to the country was indeed a culture shock, not just to me but the whole family. There are lots of things about London, and dear Putney, that I miss. However, as I am sure will be apparent, there is no lack of material here to write about. Anyone who regards the countryside, and particularly that of our part of the Cotswolds, as a sleepy backwater will certainly have their eyes opened; the place is buzzing with incident, intrigue, gossip and humour – fertile ground indeed.
I would like to thank Stewart Steven, the Editor of the Mail on Sunday for allowing me to reprint these pieces. I am eternally grateful to him and his colleagues for constant guidance and encouragement. The fact that I found it necessary to make a point about restoring some of my original material was in no way a criticism. I always write over length, and newspapers have to cut somewhere. It is just the way they work. I would like to thank Annalise Kay for typing and invariably re-typing the manuscripts. I hope the reader will enjoy, as I did, looking back on the last momentous five years.
Bisley, Gloucestershire
June 1987