The Fringe of Power

"He was Churchill’s private secretary. He started at the age of 27 as deputy private secretary, and what’s extraordinary from the outset is that his judgment is so very mature – even though he’s a young man. The other thing that I noticed is that all his friends are toffs. He doesn’t seem to know anyone from an ordinary background. He’s a witness to another age of politics. These days politics tends to be terribly frenetic and tabloid-driven, to some extent. It really wasn’t like that then. The first thing that strikes one is how apparently laid back it all was – he was still dining in his club and so forth even though there was a war on. I guess the same handful of families tended to be represented at the higher end of the Tory party for most of the time over a very long period and so they all knew each other from their public schools. On the day of the Norway debate, which brought down the Chamberlain government, the entry goes something like, ‘Sunny morning, went riding in Richmond Park. Strolled into the House for the Norway debate.’ But he is a very good judge of character and this is a really fascinating insight into both the characters at the top and into the nature of government at that time – much more laid back than government today. It might have led to better government – I don’t know. I mean all this racing around doesn’t necessarily do."