A Spectator's Notebook
SOME YEARS AGO, when the omniscient Crawfie was about to unleash a fresh flood of detail about the private life of the Royal Family, the announcement boasted that 'only Crawfie could tell.' My predecessor in this column, Janus, added: 'only Crawfie would.' By betraying the trust which the Royal Family had in her for seventeen years, by cashing in on the genuine affection in which she was held by Princess Margaret and the Queen, Crawfie has made a fat living. Whether she will be able to continue plying her rather nauseous trade will depend on her ability (and her editor's) to live down the monu- mental gaffe she committed in last week's Woman's Own. In her weekly column of trivial twaddle Crawfie wrote with her usual confidence that 'the bearing and dignity of the Queen at the Trooping the Colour ceremony at the Horse Guards Parade last .week caused admiration among the spectators . . .' and added for good measure that 'Ascot this year had an air of enthusiasm about it never seen there before.' Now there is some slight danger that many of Crawfie's readers are unaware that Trooping the Colour was cancelled this year by the Queen, and Ascot postponed until July. But I am delighted to see that more than a quarter of the Daily Mirror's 5.600,999 readers also read Woman's Own, and to deduce therefrom that a million and a half of Crawfie's readers will also have read Cassandra's magnificent demolition of her on Tuesday. If housewives gossip as much as they are supposed to, one may safely assume that the majority of those who have hitherto swallowed Crawfie's output without question will be going through the salutary process of disenchantment.
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