Diary – 27 March 2004

How many novels do I have to write before reviewers stop saying ‘surprisingly good for a cook’? A friend says tartly that it’s a bit rich to complain — I could have been judged on my merits by writing under a pseudonym, only then I might not have been published at all. Another disheartening discovery is that my new novel, aimed at fortysomethings, has a title that only the over-sixties get. The phrase A Lovesome Thing was greeted by blank faces until I visited a literary festival in the Cotswolds. The audience was all female and all grey. ‘Anyone know what A Lovesome Thing is?’ I asked. They sang out in response: ‘A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!/ Rose plot/ fringed pool.’

As Chairman of Governors of one of the previously failing, now working, schools managed by 3E’s Ltd, I received an incomprehensible letter from Surrey County Council. It seems, from the letter, that they are proposing not to pass on the full 4-per-cent funding increase promised by the government.