The sad lament of Barbara Amiel

No one can accuse Barbara Amiel, wife of the Canadian fraudster Lord Black of Crossharbour, of not standing by her man. In a 4,000-word article for the Canadian current affairs journal Macleans, Lady Black sets out a forensic analysis of the former Daily Telegraph owner’s ongoing attempts to prove his innocence of defrauding shareholders of his company Hollinger of $6.5m, in the course of which she pours scorn on former friends such as Henry Kissinger.

After calling the failure to overturn Conrad Black’s conviction in June "a judicial murder in the Seventh Circuit US Court of Appeal", she offers a lament about herself. She writes: "What does it matter if one well-off elderly white woman with too many pairs of expensive shoes finds her social life largely visiting her dearly missed husband in a US correctional institution?" She then rails against Black’s former friends, recalling how as far back as 2003 supporters were already deserting him.

"We knew the rats had left the ship, taking with them the last shreds of their integrity: directors like Henry Kissinger, who had sworn eternal loyalty only weeks earlier… all of them ready to sing any song to save themselves the inconvenience of standing up to the threats of regulators and prosecutors."

She adds: "Now, once more, we’re going through an appeal process. Now I know from the marrow of my bones that it will be useless." Oh, woe upon woe.