Mary Soames (obituary, 2 June) was chair of the Royal National Theatre Board from 1988, during most of my time as director, and we became very close friends. Her appointment was greeted by many people with surprise and by some with alarm. I heard it said by a Labour MP that her mandate would be to privatise the National Theatre, and by a Tory that she was being put in to "sort out the pinkoes".
My own response was one of curiosity: not so much as to why she had been chosen as to why she had accepted. She was not a regular theatregoer and had no conspicuously advertised ambitions to hold public office. With hindsight I think Mary agreed because it was an adventure that she couldn't refuse, and perhaps an unsurprising thing to say about a Churchill because it was her destiny. The National Theatre never had cause to regret her appointment, and neither I think did she.
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