Diana, Lady Delamere.
James Fox, the author first met, Diana, Lady Delamere, at her London apartment, late May, 1981.
Great introduction how the author was able to find her and then meet her. Wow.
He rang the bell, to room 83, "There came to the door, that afternoon, one of the most striking women I have ever seen, wearing an immaculately cut Eton-blue peignoir with blue ribbon bindings along the edges, and with long gold chains strung from her neck. She was younger-looking than I expected, her face longer and leaner than it had been, the ice-blue eyes as penetrating as ever. Any trace of travel fatigue had disappeared ..."
In the drawing room of the rented suite, Diana's daughter, Snoo, was sitting in the armchair. Several photographs of Tom Delamere were already in place in the bookshelves [she had just arrived in London from Nairobi that day].
James Fox and Diana agreed to meet alone one week later.
That meeting took place, p. 267.
"I'm going to dirty Ascot." "Dirty" meant "not formal attire.
She did not say a thing about events in 1941 then and never did.
"I didn't do it, if that's what you think." -- wow. Amazing, she said that.
Diana said, "I think Jock probably did do it. He was slightly mad at the time. I went down to South African to get Morris to defend him and he told me that from Jock's reactions he thought he had the first signs of a serious brain disorder. Jock never admitted to me that he had done it, but he never denied it either."
Several pages of her feelings about Broughton after the murder.
Then she has very, very fine words for Colvile, page 272.
Diana left Colvile for Tom Delamere.
Diana and Tom built a special suite at Soysambu, so that Colvile could liver there when he wanted their company. She was Little White Bear, Tom the Little Brown Bear, and Colvile was Pooh Bear or "Pooey."
She buried Tom Delamere in the little walled cemetery she built on Colvile's farm at Ndabibi (the Masai word for "place of clover"), alongside Colvile and her only child, who had lived for ten days. She has had fig trees planted and water piped tothe cemetery for theflowers, and a dog buried at the foot of each grave. She has reserved her own space between the graves and has written all the inscriptions: for the child, "So short a life"; for Colvile, "If you want a memorial, look around you," and for Delamere, "So great a man."
Four months later, in September of that year, soon before her return to Nairobi, they met again (Fox and Diana).
Diana told James Fox a couple of "illuminating points."
First, she made two denials:
Broughton and June did not come to the Claremont Road House later on the night of the murder; and,
Broughton's attempted blackmail of her had nothing to do with the jewels, although she would not say what the subject of the blackmail was.
I asked her about her trip to Nyeri, immediately after the murder. I [James Fox] said he was surprised that she had been out of the house when Broughton arrived from Nairobi. She couldn't remember why she and June were out, but she remembered the police arriving the previous night. She was distraught, and in bed, but she came down to meet them. "They asked me, "what do you think happened?" and I answered automatically, "He was a very fast driver and I think he must have crashed and been killed."
Diana thought Broughton caught up with Erroll at the end of the driveway, asked to go with him..... this is very close to the "truth."
Then this from Diana: "Jack Soames. It was very funny really that I shot better than Jock. He wasn't a good shot but it's not difficult if you're sitting in the seat beside someone."
Wow.
The pearls, the jewel box. Page 276.
She agreed that she and June had joined forces to defend Broughton ...
James Fox said Broughton was guilty, and his performance in the witness box was remarkable. Diana agreed: "He was very proud of his performance, she said, and then she told me that the remark to Harragin as he walked out of the courtroom had been simply, 'I'm a good actor.'" Morris, she said, had thought Broughton guilty.
Diana felt Broughton became unbalanced after the trial. He may have killed one of Erroll's Dachsunds after the trial...the final break with Broughton began when Colvile came across an unposted letter that Broughton had written to Vera, saying that he wanted to come back to her, but couldn't remarry her 'for tax reason,' Colvile had copied it, mailed the original to Vera, and kept a copy.
The last time she saw Broughton was in a lawyer's office in Nairobi, and it was then that she accused him of murder.
She says the rumor that she and Joss had a fight on the night of the murder was far from the truth. She regrets never having had a fight with Joss during their relationship. She felt a fight with one's love of one's life is critical.
Small talk and that was the end of the interview.
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