Diary

Sir Peregrine finds his former voice

GENERATIONS of Sunday Telegraph readers have followed the career of Sir Peregrine Worsthorne with interest, enjoying the extremity of some of his views and mourning his occasional fall from grace. The biggest fall came with his removal from the editor's chair five years ago, but there seemed to have been another disappointment in April when the former editor was asked by the paper to write a diary column.

Your diarist obviously considers this genre a noble one, but Sir Peregrine does not. In his column two Sundays ago, he said he had received a number of letters from readers who regretted that he had 'given up punditry for a more personal-style diary column'. He agreed with them: 'Trying to make what you eat for breakfast interesting is a . . . taxing task . . . Writing a personalised diary-style column is a mug's game.'

Readers took exception to Sir Peregrine's new career because they claimed it had turned him into a megalomaniac and self-publicist. It was Sir Peregrine who told how he had broken wind on the London Underground, and his readers, and others, didn't like it. However, I'm glad to report that his latest self- publicising has had the desired effect. Last Sunday he was back in full voice as a pundit, supporting a civilian right to carry arms. 'It was thought a good idea to let me have another go (at punditry),' he said yesterday. However his editor, Charles Moore, warns that the diary looms again. 'It was agreed when Perry was signed up for the diary that he would still be able to write the old-style opinions on international and national affairs. This just happened to be the first issue in which he did it.'

BRITISH fans of Bob Dylan cannot contain their excitement at their idol's decision to look for a house in Crouch End, but not all Dylan enthusiasts wear their hearts on their sleeves. The singer is moving to Crouch End partly because of his friendship with Dave Stewart, formerly of the Eurythmics, who has a house and recording studio there.

Dylan met Stewart in America and took him up on his invitation to call when he next came to England. Giving a taxi driver what he thought was Stewart's address, he knocked on a door and said: 'I've come to see Dave.' Some time later Dave, a big Dylan fan, arrives. 'Bob Dylan's come to see you,' says his wife. 'Hi, Bob,' says Dave. Not Dave Stewart, but Dave the window cleaner.

Art from the abyss

RATHER less grey than some of her subjects is the language of Shenda Amery, the artist whose recent bust of John Major prompted his wife's immortal words: 'I don't have to look at it all the time, you know - after all, I've got the real thing.' In a brochure explaining her art, Ms Amery explains that 'the focus of my art rests in my existence. I accept the abyss, yet I labour to ignore its reality by embracing life itself. In effect, I turn my back on my doubts and walk towards that which I know through experience. The life registered in my mind and senses I pour forth through my hands.'

I'M AFRAID it's not just the Norwegian minister Thorbjorn Berntsen who holds John Gummer, the Secretary of State for Environment, in low regard. An employee of Mr Gummer's previous department, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, has sent me a list of the latest Maff staff allowances, highlighting increased rates for the 'obnoxious conditions allowance' and the 'exceptionally obnoxious conditions allowance'. The employee's covering note asks: 'Is this really needed since Mr Gummer left us? Please may I remain anonymous.'

Surprise quote A PINK face or two at the pink paper yesterday when the Financial Times profiled the Chicago Democrat Dan Rostenkowski. In so doing, it gave the uninitiated an insight into newspaper journalism by failing to erase a sub-editor's comment. Thus, after the writer's lengthy exposition on the fact that Mr Rostenkowski is 'defiantly old school in his way of doing business, which involves a mastery of the art of compromise, backed up by endless loyalty and considerable courage', the sub-editor breaks in with the following: 'Meaning what precise?'

A DAY LIKE THIS

4 August 79 AD Pliny the Younger describes in a letter the eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii: 'The buildings round us were already tottering, and we were in real and imminent danger if the house collapsed. This finally decided us to leave the town. We were followed by a panic-stricken mob wanting to act on someone else's decision in preference to their own who hurried us on our way by pressing hard behind in a dense crowd. Once beyond the buildings we stopped and there we had some extraordinary experiences which thoroughly alarmed us. The carriages we had ordered began to run in different directions though the ground was quite level. We also saw the sea sucked away; it receded from the shore so that quantities of sea creatures were left stranded on dry sand. On the landward side a fearful black cloud was rent by forked and quivering bursts of flame, and parted to reveal great tongues of fire, like flashes of lightning magnified in size.'