OFF TO BUCKLER'S HARD

Buckler's Hard, where the ships for Nelson's fleet were built. The Master Builder (now a hotel) is at the bottom on the left. The marina was built in 1973

S A T U R D A Y,  9  S E P T

Drove down to the boat. Fab weather all morning. Went to the Stores – no Moustachy.

We sailed to Buckler’s Hard, I read ‘The Bell’ all the way. Went ashore to Master Builder’s pub. Very sweet there. Sat down in the little front room they used to have the restaurant in, and had a very good hot Cornish pasty. Daddy was in an absent mood.

Back on the boat played Bodmin Road Bridge - I won! Last time we played was in Lech with weedy Alan from Eton, and I was feeling miserable because Dutronc went out with the sex-bombs when it could have been me. Mummy got so cross with us for giggling and being slow at the cards, why she can't relax a bit occasionally and be infantile too, I don't know.

Water-bottle in bed. I’ve been thinking about Dutronc and I’ve just realised he only took a real interest in me after the Dutch girls left. When they were here he looked at them a lot and seemed pretty friendly. I’m sure he would have asked the younger one out if her leg hadn’t been in plaster. So I don’t think I’m really his type. The reason I’m sure he liked me quite a lot because he asked me to go swimming even after I refused (twice) to go dancing - but just not enough to have wanted to write or anything.

“The BBC’s three-parter: ‘The Love Generation’”

On this day in 1967 the BBC broadcast the first of Alan Whicker’s three-part series, The Love Generation. Whicker was the Louis Theroux of his day, but older and suaver. Here in his infamous drawl he describes Haight Ashbury, San Francisco.

“The traditional home of the ‘way out’, San Francisco is today the mecca of happy hippies cracking the smooth silhouette of America’s materialism with that ultimate weapon – love.”