Diary: Commuters get a first class ticket to a ding dong Bell bout with Clifford

Word has reached me of two old adversaries locking horns

recently.

Quentin Bell was quietly returning to Weybridge after an emotional

afternoon at the Atlantic Bar in Piccadilly, (where he was a guest

speaker at a River Publishing do) when who should get on the very same

train but his old nemesis Max Clifford.

Clifford says he strolled down the carriage and sat next to Bell without

realising. A few minutes later they were engaged in ’lively’

discussion.

Apparently other travellers recognised Clifford and gave him a bit of a

barracking but Bell valiantly carried on with his own rantings.

Clifford says: ’Our discussions are usually lively but this time it was

even funnier because Quentin was in a state.’

What was the hot topic of debate? ’I asked Quentin if he’d got lots of

calls about Louise Woodward from PR Week,’ says Clifford.

The reason? Several weeks ago Clifford attempted to convince PR Week

that Bell was acting for the manslaughter nanny. Hilariously Bell

wasn’t.

’I was trying to keep his name alive now he’s past it,’ says

Clifford.

The pair both got off the train at Weybridge. ’Max now lives in a second

class celebrity ghetto known as Burwood Park,’ says Bell - who rather

imaginatively describes his own suburb as ’working-class’.

But it seems unlikely that the two will be meeting up for mince pies and

a glass of sherry over the Christmas period.