Sir: If Peter Sekuless is correct in claiming that Ali
Forbes mixed at a very senior level during the second world war, he clearly sur- passed himself afterwards.
Readers of Barbara Skelton's delightful memoirs of life with Cyril Connolly etc. will have caught intriguing glimpses of All who makes a truly majestic appearance in her diary for June 1950:
Have been twice to Wimbledon. Once with Patrick and once with Cyril. It was the first time Cyril had been. The Queen being there, he spent the whole time looking over at the Royal Box, where Ali Forbes was sitting, and felt he was getting some of the reflected glory.
However, a later entry shows a racier side to Ali. Barbara Skelton, in Morocco with Cyril, writes that 'Ali Forbes was also in Tangier living in requited love with a very beautiful Moorish girl.' Even then, though, social duty evidently called as he is report- ed to have left the girl behind when going to Cairo to see Nasser.
R.J. Weetch
141 Percy Road, London W12
Previous page
