{An acid-tongued Princess....}[21st August 1987]

[Redbook4:72-73][19870821:1730]{An acid-tongued Princess....}[21st August 1987]

19870821.1730

A remark by Christopher Hitchens in the T[imes] L[iterary] S[upplement] about having danced with a girl who danced with a fellow who danced with the Princess of Wales, reminds me that many years ago, my father impressed an au-pair girl who was living with us by saying that when I was older (I might then have been about 13), I would dance with Princess Anne.

She did appear impressed; but apart from the acute social embarrassment I felt at the over-reaching nature of the remark, I had a greater reason to fear this over-exposure because I could not dance. I knew my father's ambitious will, and perhaps over-estimated (as perhaps did he) his social influence: I had a vision of myself drawing the short straw (by design or chance), stumbling sweatily round some vast ballroom, encircled by Dowagers with scornful eyes, and an acid-tongued Princess (although this may be a later gloss).... Needless to say the opportunity did not occur; nor, I should guess, was it ever likely to.

– Praise be to the Lord!

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