Dining out
From Barbara Amiel Black Sir: A final comment for the record re the Eleanor Mills complaint. She writes (Letters, 14 February) that it is 'strange that she [Barbara Black] should know so little about my being asked to leave . . . and yet claim to have such a close recall of the events after that'.
I claim no personal recall of the events. After her last letter, I asked my assistant, Mrs Penny Phillips, if she knew what had happened. She remembered, as it fell to her to escort Miss Mills out.
Miss Mills writes, 'Conrad Black was aware when I was invited to dine that I was about to take up a position at the Sunday Times. Thus the fact that some of the guests had an "imbroglio with that paper" cannot have been the reason for my eviction.'
As Miss Mills knows, the dinner at our home was for the British and American directors of Sotheby's. Miss Mills was a lastminute addition of my husband's to even up numbers. On introducing her, my husband told our guests of her new job. Apparently, a few of them then became agitated as they felt they would be unable to talk freely about Sotheby matters due to difficulties at that time between Sotheby's and the Sunday Times. My husband was urgently requested not to have a Sunday Times person present. He very reluctantly agreed to ask Miss Mills if she would leave.
He apologised profusely to her at the time. He wrote a letter to Miss Mills directly after the evening, apologising again and once more referring to the situation that caused her departure. He apologised to Miss Mills's stepfather when he asked about the evening shortly afterwards. We've all apologised to Miss Mills. Had a similar incident happened to me, I'd be upset, though I'd like to think I wouldn't go on about it as much.
Having said that, I think the spin being put on events by Miss Mills is malicious. At a guess, I'd say that in the six years since this incident occurred Miss Mills has dined out so often on the story that she now genuinely believes her own fiction. The actual events were unfortunate enough; they needed no embroidery by her.
Barbara Arnie! Black
London W8
From Penny Phillips Sir: My role in Ms Mills's now much-discussed exit was perfectly straightforward as I explained to Barbara Black when she asked me, and I am at a loss to understand Eleanor Mills's explanation. Conrad Black did ask me to order a taxi, as she writes. I asked Ms Mills if she would like to wait in the privacy of the library. She declined. The front hall area was crowded with guests and she asked if there was a quicker way out. I said we could leave via the basement and she happily agreed. I have never, and neither has anyone else in this house, called the basement entrance the 'servants' entrance', so her recall of my conversation with the taxi company is incorrect.
Penny Phillips
London W8
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