Off to Wigtown

The current Lord Lovat

Richard Demarco

Sefton with scars from nail bomb

I'm off to Wigtown today, to hear Richard Demarco 'In Conversation'. Before Richard, I have booked to hear Sarah Fraser on her forebear Simon, Lord Lovat. Every oldest son in the house of Lovat is named Simon, called 'Shimi', as I learned from another descendant, Veronica, the late Lady Maclean widow of Sir Fitzroy of 'Eastern Approaches' fame. I will report back tomorrow.

On the subject of seasonal recipes: I invented a salad yesterday evening as follows:- a little leftover pilau rice (Uncle Ben's instant - excellent) to which I added some wilted spinach bought in a bag from the Co-op, some crispy bacon and a very ripe plum tomato, sliced. I seasoned the mix with some freshly ground black pepper and voila. For afters I had a very hard pear with gorgonzola - the watery hardness of the pear was more than compensated by the creamy, salty cheese which I spread on each slice of the quartered fruit.

The tragic news of the former member of the household cavalry found dead beside his children in a Hampshire lane yesterday brought back memories of the day when he was blown up by the IRA with his horse, Sefton. We walked our dogs every day in Hyde Park past the spot before my husband crossed back to his office in Grosvenor Place, including on the day the incident happened. He was at his desk overlooking Buckingham Palace when the explosion occurred. We had many near-misses of that sort. My daughter left Harrods half an hour before another IRA bomb went off, killing one person, outside the store one Christmas week. The front door of the house opposite ours, where the Deputy Leader of the House of Commons was living at the time, was blown in by the IRA one summer morning when I was on my own with my two children.