The pre-commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales is already in full swing. She is a subject on which it is hard to get the balance right. Her impact was remarkable and her death tragic. On the other hand, the picture of the loving, giving saint which has been getting a new lick of paint these last weeks is hard to recognise. I remember being in the Daily Telegraph newsroom on the frantic night before the funeral. We had a special supplement to get out and a demented press conference by Mohamed Al Fayed to report. Suddenly someone on the picture desk looked up from tapping his computer and shouted out: ‘Oh Jesus. Now f***ing Mother Teresa’s dead!’ I’m sorry to say that we all burst out laughing under the strain. We had to scurry round looking for pictures of the future real saint with her friend Diana. Much later, I learnt that the Missionaries of Charity, knowing that their leader was mortally ill, debated whether to tell her about the death of the princess. They decided they would. On hearing the news, Mother Teresa said: ‘Well, that’s very sad, but perhaps it was the right time.’ An odd thing to say about someone who died before she was 40, but not wrong.
Last week the births, marriages and deaths column of the Times announced an unusual marriage. Lord N.J. Blackmore had married Lord M.T.D. Hiscutt. The ceremony took place in the Palace of Westminster. ‘Marky’ was attended by five women/girls, said the announcement. Nick had two best men. Somebody ‘acted as page boy’. The honeymoon will be spent in Kenya ‘…with Benidorm delayed’. I had not previously known this, but members of the public can be legally married in Parliament — in the Members’ Dining Room, for example (£2,000) — so my original hunch that the notice was a hoax must have been wrong.
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