lovers who have brought a great and valuable institution to its knees," it said. The Board were forced to resign and, in January 1998, "Sir Colin Southgate (EMI chairman) [was] appointed as ROH's chairman and he threatened that ballet and opera performances may have to cease for two years to save money." It has been noted that Allen was essentially forced out of the position, with the one person coming to her defence unprompted being the conductor Bernard Haitink, the ROH's music director. "What is desperately needed at the moment is a modicum of stability," Haitink declared in an open letter. "A third change of leadership within a year is not the answer." However, although Allen was formally asked to stay on, she resigned in March 1998. Life after the Opera House Allen published a book, A House Divided, containing her diaries of the period that she was general manager of the Covent Garden Opera House. Since leaving that post, Allen has presented various programmes on BBC Radio 4, covering current events and the arts. A friend of Douglas Adams since Cambridge, Allen gave the eulogy at his funeral. See also Royal Opera House Arts Council of Great Britain References Notes Sources Allen, Mary, A House Divided: The Diary of a Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998 Lebrecht, Norman, Covent Garden, The Untold Story: Dispatches from the English Culture War, 1945 to 2000, Northeastern University Press, 2001, 1951 births Alumni of New Hall, Cambridge Alumni of the University of East Anglia BBC newsreaders and journalists British arts administrators Women arts administrators Place of birth missing (living people) Living people Opera managers People educated at the School of St Helen and St Katharine Royal Opera House British women television journalists British radio presenters British women radio presenters