Mary Gilliatt - Mary Gilliatts Fabulous Food and Friends: Entertaining Princess Margaret, Spike Milligan and Other Friends

In memory of Roger, a much-loved host; for our elder daughter, Sophia, who presciently saved the dinner books on which this book is based and for Francis Finlay who generously encouraged me in the project from the first.

First published in Great Britain in 2008 by

Remember When

an imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire

S70 2AS

Copyright Mary Gilliatt, 2008

ISBN 978-1-84468-044-3

eISBN 978-1-84468-870-8

PRC ISBN 978-1-84468-871-5

The right of Mary Gilliatt to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP cataloge record for this book is available from the British Library

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Starting as a journalist; meeting people, getting married; entertaining.

Down the Nile with Lee Miller; Spike Milligan wakes us at 3am in his pyjamas; our eldest daughter is born; Princess Margaret sings Tom Lehrer's The Vatican Wrap; Terence Conran starts the first Habitat.

Peggy Guggenheim offends Princess Margaret;

Fleur Cowles leaves, annoyed; I inadvertently put Balmoral in quarantine for mumps; our second daughter is born.

Spike Milligan turns Oblomov into Son of Oblomov; Goons versus Beyond the Fringe Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Jonathan Miller together.

Ken Tynan and Kathleen Halton get married with Marlene Dietrich and Penelope Gilliatt as Matrons of Honour; we rent a cottage in Suffolk; Peter Vanneck takes out insurance, aged 19, against becoming Lord Mayor of London; I meet my son's father-in-law three months before my son is born; Arthur Koestler and Oliver Sacks together.

Peter Sellers masterminds his imitation of HRH.

Tony Snowdon gets hoisted mid-air in his mini;

Terence Conran gets interested in publishing.

We move house twice over; Sir Francis Chichester and Roger Bannister; our anti-war hero, Spike Milligan sits (literally) at the feet of General, Sir Brian Horrocks; Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn come to supper accidentally.

Goodbye to all that; a quite different dinner in my French village; my daughter, Sophia and William Ledward prepare to open the restaurant du Lac just down the road.

I am most grateful to the team at Remember When for all the really hard work they have put into this book. So I give my special thanks to my editor, Fiona Shoop, always generously available with her limited time and warmly, gracefully and helpfully at the answering end of the e-mail or telephone; Tamsin Johnson and Jessica Mitchell for all their hard work co-ordinating and copy editing, Ian Helliwell for his designing and typesetting ability, Sylvia Menzies-Earl for making such good plates out of old pictures and the talented Marie Parkinson for her very cleverly designed jacket around my very much younger self. I cannot say, alas, that I have not changed...

I am also very grateful to my agents, Fiona Lindsey and Mary Bekhait of Limelight Management, not to forget Alison Lindsey (for always keeping the accounts so well) and to my goddaughter, Jane Milligan and to Roxanna Tynan for all their help and efficiency in routing out family photographs. And although I have acknowledged my daughter, Sophia Gilliatt elsewhere in the book for her family archival efficiency there is no doubt that without her thoughtfulness and care this text could not have been written. Lastly, I should acknowledge the major role played by Smythsons, that most elegant of English stationers for so many decades, for producing such useful and well-made books in which to record one's entertaining.

Abu Simbel: The great Egyptian temple of Rameses the Second and of Nefertari in Egypt discovered in 1813. In 1968 it was dismantled and relocated to a desert plateau 200 feet above and 600 feet west of its original location, south of Aswan on the west bank of the Nile, to make sure it was conserved during the building of the Aswan Dam.

Adler, Larry: Well-known mouth organist as he liked to be called, who was exiled in the UK to escape testifying in the witch hunts instigated by Senator Joe McCarthy in the 1950s to hunt down so-called Communist sympathisers. Oscar-winning Larry Adler never returned to the US.

Albee, Edward: Twentieth Century American playwright, author of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf amongst many other fine plays.

Algonquin Hotel: New York City Hotel particularly associated with The New Yorker magazine and its round table frequented by many of the American literati of the early Twentieth Century, including Dorothy Parker.

Alexander, Czar Alexander II of Russia: Late Nineteenth Century Russian Czar, assassinated in 1885.

All Souls' College: Distinguished postgraduate college at Oxford University.

Allen & Unwin: Old-established UK publishers, now operating from Australia.

Amis, Kingsley: Well-known mid-Twentieth Century UK novelist and writer of Lucky Jim amongst many other titles. Father of writer Martin Amis.

Ampleforth College: Roman Catholic public school in Yorkshire, UK.

Anderson, Lindsay: Another writer and playwright of the time and author of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, amongst others.

Andrade, James (Jimmy): Antiquarian with a shop in the King's Road, Chelsea, London in the 1950s and 1960s.

Annan, Noel: Well-known English academic, one time Master of King's College, Cambridge.

Anstee, Paul: London Interior designer of the mid-Twentieth Century and for many years the partner of actor, Sir John Gielgud.

Anstruther, the late Sir Ian, Bart: Author, English eccentric, our landlord in Thurloe Square and, with his wife Susan and family, former next door neighbours and friends of the Gilliatts. Died 2007.

Anstruther, Lady Susan: Also working as the London architect, Susan Walker, and widow of the later Sir Ian Anstruther, Bart.

Anstruther, Sir Toby, Bart: Property Developer, landowner, the younger son of Ian and Susan Anstruther and one of my godsons.

Archigram: Much admired avant-garde Architectural Group of the mid-Twentieth Century.

Armstrong-Jones, Tony, The Earl of Snowdon, GCVO: Brilliant photographer and designer, and former Provost of the Royal College of Art. Married to the late HRH, Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon.

Arnaud, Etienne: French student and my neighbour in France.

Arnaud, Gilles: French aid to disadvantaged youth, and neighbour.

Artists' Market: London Gallery set up in the 1960s by Vera Russell to showcase work of new young painters and sculptors.

Astor, Colonel John Jacob: Well-known New Yorker and hotel developer of the early-Twentieth Century who went down with the Titanic.

Bacon, Francis, 15611626