Books : Cold Cream: My Early Life and Other Mistakes

Rating: - A feast of literary and British political anecdotes
I read his book after hearing it on BBC radio 4 Book of the week. I had never heard of the author but he no doubt got publicity because he was a speech writer for Mrs Thatcher.

If he isn't related to someone famous he knows them either through his relatives or as a result of going to Eton and working for Mrs Thatcher.

His mother is Lady Julia Pakenham and knew the Mitford sisters. Neither of his parents ever worked . One of his uncles was Anthony Powell of Dance to the Music of time fame who knew George Orwell.

Her admits that he only got jobs through influence . Every time he ever applied for a job he failed his only avenue of survival was personal recommendation . He lived on the oxygen of influence.

The book is rambling and although it is an autobiography it seems to be a collection of anecdotes about famous people he has either met or been related to. The chapters are very long as there only five of them in a 351 page book.

The last chapter is what brings him his fame as it is called Selwyn and Keith and Margaret. He worked for Keith Joseph and then Margaret Thatcher.

She took him on as a speechwriter and called him a wordsmith. He said she had one quality and that was tenacity She never gave up once a subject engaged her attention..Her finest hour was the Falklands as she was determined to retake it whatever the cost. It was suggested that it would have been cheaper to offer everyone the 1,800 islanders a millions pounds each to resettle in New Zealand or Canada. Mrs T did not favour that idea.

He had run ins with the civil service and as he said their favourite word was unhelpful After the Falklands war she became more popular as the Labour party was perceived as unelectable.

The Tory grandees thought they could manipulate her

She reputedly survived on only four hours sleep a night but she would stay after everyone else went to bed but clear up as soon as they had gone. For an ex barrister she was reputedly poor at reading a text and she had to be taught how to give the proper emphasis to her famous speech

You turn if you want: the lady's not for turning"

She remained heroic,intolerable often,vindictive,even poisonous sometimes ,but always heroic. Equally he never became fond of her. That insistent hard concentration could never become endearing. I'm not here to be nice she would was which was just as well.

We can only suppose that is how she gained power and hung onto power against such powerful prejudice against both her being a women and being middle class and a grocer's daughter.

He is a master of the anecdote and when his son Harry asks Dennis Thatcher if it would be alright to ask mark Thatcher of an autograph. Denis replied "I would not bother if I was you the boy can scarcely write his own name." Dens was wrong of course as it turned out he could write his own name on a cheque for allegedly financing the overthrow of the government of Equatorial Guinea to which he pleaded guilty


Also a story about a school mate Prince Michael Of Kent jumping up and down stark naked on his dormitory bed for 10 minutes each day.

If you are interested in the history of the 20th Century and British politics in particular this is the book for you.

The Cold Cream in the title is what his mother used to use liberally for chapped skin or bruising . She also used to one of the models that advertised it.

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Rating: - A five-star autobiography but just one reservation!
Ferdinand Mount has written a five-star autobiography, but I have just one reservation about it despite having enjoyed it immensely.

Mr Mount 'jumps about' rather too much. The ultra-long chapters don't deal consecutively with aspects of his fascinating life. For example, the sad account of his mother's too-early demise is followed much later with episodes where the lady is alive again, and the book requires a degree of concentration that I don't always possess late at night when I do most of my reading.

Mr Mount has already in his fascinating life (and I hope he has many more years to come: we are round about the same age and I can recall some of the people and most of the events described) done more things and worked with more interesting people, not least some of the eccentric circle of his own family, his friends and his acquaintances, than many of us could ever wish for and, whilst I have known just one or two of those mentioned myself, it is such fun to get to 'know' more, even with what can only be 'second-hand' knowledge.

One of the newspaper reviewers has alluded to Mr Mount's 'name-dropping.' I recognise what the reviewer is getting at, for the sub-headings of the five main chapters include the following:

'Skiing with Donald MacLean,' John le Carré at Eton,' 'Miriam Margolyes on the hearthrug,' 'Prince Michael in the dorm,' 'My stepmother and Gore Vidal,' 'Lord Longford on the platform,' 'Harold Wilson and my tape recorder,' My odyssey with Selwyn Lloyd,' 'Keith Joseph's cold,' 'Ian Gow and Dr. Bodkin Adams,' 'The intolerable Alfred Sherman,' 'Jeffrey Archer's joke,' 'The Parkinson affair,' etc., etc.

It falls to a fortunate few to be able drop so many well-known names and the author has every right so to do, for the names are of his relatives, his friends, his close acquaintances and his work colleagues.

Re-reading what I have written thus far informs me that I may have been too harsh in my judgement, for this superb book, so elegantly written (Mr Mount didn't go to Eton for the Wall Game, for which he was ill-suited, but to obtain a classical education, and it shows!), and so eminently readable, not only for its description of the various moving moments of his own life but also for the unique insights into the workings of 10, Downing Street under Margaret Thatcher, is a 'must-read' for anyone with the vaguest interest in English journalism, politics and social life in the 20th century.

By the way, the book's quaint title is explained at the end, and the explanation is a delightful vignette in itself.