• And she never let you down.

She never let us down. Even to this day, she never let us down. So it was a wonderful, fun period. Then Conde Nast bought Tatler because it was this tiny little embryo. They had just begun Vanity Fair in New York. It had had three editors and it had failed and so the chairman said, 'Let's try to bring over this English girl who has put up circulation at Tatler.' Because, by that time, Tatler had really soared and become a big sort of chunky glossy.

• But you broke a few rules even in the British media, where royalty was never really given any immunity.

Yes, Tatler was very irreverent. I mean the whole idea of Tatler was that we would cover society but we would do it with attitude, we would do it with fun, and we would bring as well a lot of really good writers. I mean, I had terrific writers such as Martin Amis, who is now a famous novelist, and Julian Barnes, who is also a famous novelist, and all these people were writing for Tatler when they were kind of kids but they were good. They weren't reverent and they were extremely impertinent.

• Tell us about some of the most outrageous things you did at Tatler, the rules you broke?

... contd.