The Shadow of My Hand by Alun Chalfont
As appropriate for a Welshman, Lord Chalfont takes his title from a Dylan Thomas poem, 'Fern Hill'. His memoirs are the account of how a Welsh grammar schoolboy, whose ambition was to join the army, ended up, to his astonishment, in Harold Wilson's Labour government as a Peer and as Minister for Disarmament, and how, in a further unlikely twist, he found himself working for the Sultan of Brunei. On the morning after Labour won the 1964 General Election in a landslide, and Harold Wilson became Prime Minister, the Defence Correspondent of The Times, Alun Gwynne-Jones, received a call to go forthwith to No 10 Downing Street. To his astonishment he was offered by Harold Wilson a Peerage, a seat on the Privy Councillor, and the position of 'Minister for Disarmament'. For Gwynne-Jones, who took the title Lord Chalfont, life would never be the same again. Three of his six years as a FO minister coincided with George Brown as Foreign Secretary. His boorishness, his love of drink, led t o some hair-raising stories, which Chalfont relates. The second side of his public life, as a businessmen, allows him the opportunity to write about the Gummer family - he was a director of Shandwick, Peter Gummer's PR company; and he adds revelations about the life of Lonrho's controversial Chairman, 'Tiny' Rowland, whose path he crossed.
Regular Army officer 1940-61; Defence Correspondent, The Times, 1961-64. Life peer 1964, Foreign Office minister 1964-70. Resumed journalistic career , company director (chairman Vickers 1990-96); also chairman of The Radio Authori
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780297813323 |
| ISBN 10 | 0297813323 |
| Title | The Shadow of My Hand |
| Author | Alun Chalfont |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Orion Publishing Co |
| Year published | 2000-05-11 |
| Number of pages | 288 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |