To make a party, the Tynans asked the Pinters to dinner with the Snowdons. Vivien Merchant asked Margaret whether she wasn’t ashamed of being in the Royal Family. Apparently she wasn’t.H.P. sat silent throughout. My only experience of his losing his famous cool was when I asked him about the Arab-Israeli war. He grew excited and said that the Arabs had asked for a bloody good thrashing and had got one.
Frederic Raphael, “Personal Terms”.
