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The Fringes of Power: Downing Street Diaries 1939-1955

The Fringes of Power: Downing Street Diaries 1939-1955

by JohnColville (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 2005

    $4.19
Synopsis

At the outset of the Second World War, John Colville, a young diplomat, was seconded from the foreign office to Number 10 Downing Street. For nine of the next sixteen years, he served three prime ministers - briefly Neville Chamberlain and Clement Attlee - but for much of that time as Private Secretary to Winston Churchill. During those momentous years Colville kept a diary, though this was forbidden by wartime regulations, locking it nightly into his desk at Number 10. Colville seldom left Churchill's side and the insights and observations he records paint an invaluable portrait of the nation's most famous leader both in times of war and peace. Transcribed and edited by Colville before his death, this new edition includes new material, both from the war period and from the time when he was private secretary to the then Princess Elizabeth when she became engaged and then married Prince Philip.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 752
 Edition: New Ed
 Publisher: Phoenix
Published: 01 Sep 2005
ISBN 10: 1842126261
ISBN 13: 9781842126264
Book Overview: A bestseller on original publication As read on BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. Magnificent reviews from both sides of the Atlantic: 'There will be nothing like it in our time' New York Times. 'One of the most enthralling diaries of the century' Sunday Telegraph 'Peppered with fresh anecdotes...A portrait of Churchill that is incomparably intimate and vivid' Alistair Cooke, New Yorker 'Riveting...[has the] outstanding merit of personal honesty...As interesting and varied a life as could be conceived' Elizabeth Longford, Literary Review 'The best picture we have of Churchill from below...Churchill's humanity glows from these pages' Sunday Times 'Marvellously credible...he domesticates the legendary, without trivialising it - a great literary achievement' Peregrine Worsthorne, Sunday Telegraph.

Media Reviews
'Colville's diary is engaging, evocative and hard to put down.' GOOD BOOK GUIDE
Author Bio
Sir John Colville was born in 1915 and educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he won a Senior Scholarship and first class honours in history. He passed his Diplomatic Service exam at an unusually early age. He was a particularly close friend of and associate of Churchill, whose trustee and executor he became, and was closely involved in the creation of Churchill College, Cambridge.