David Steel: Now, what is her name?

My heart misses a beat as the honeyed Kirkaldian vowels of Lord Steel of Aikwood (a Knight of the Order of the Thistle!) - alias David Steel, former Liberal Party leader - trickles into my ears from the Radio 4 studio of the religious affairs Sunday show this morning. He was talking some guff about a church-related matter. But I was scarcely listening to his words because I was having a Proustian madeleine moment as I remembered again - or tried to remember - the sexy, sassy blonde writer who told me of her special friendship with family man Steel many many years ago after he succeeded the sodomite and acquitted attempted murderer Jeremy Thorpe. What is her name? I'm sure it'll come to me any moment now. Self-advertised virtue always prompts a memory of actual life, don't you find?