Spectator competition winners: John Terry’s secret diary

The invitation to submit extracts from the diaries of the famous that their writers did not wish the world to see was taken up with gusto. Josh Ekroy impressed, lifting the lid on F.R.Leavis’ and C.P. Snow’s chummy trysts; Alan Millard wasn’t alone in outing God-botherer Richard Dawkins; and here’s a snippet from Sylvia Fairley’s entry, which blows the whistle on Wordsworth:

Walked around Ullswater in pensive mood, unable to find a suitable rhyme for ‘hills’. My dear sister, as ever, solved my predicament … the muse inspired her, and she has completed the poem already.

Hats off, all round, but especially to the winners, printed below, who are rewarded with £25 each. The bonus fiver belongs to Basil Ransome-Davies.

Basil Ransome-Davies/John Terry Sunday: another away draw yesterday. We mustn’t suffer a slump in morale, though. I see it as a point gained, not two lost. Some of the lads think differently, as if they’d been reading Schopenhauer, but I say pessimism is a self-fulfilling prophecy.