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.