The Fringes of Power: Downing Street Diaries: Volume One, 1939 - October 1941 - Softcover

Colville, Sir John Rupert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340402695 ISBN 13: 9780340402696

Publisher: Sceptre, 1986

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.

About this title

Review

'Colville's diary is engaging, evocative and hard to put down.' (GOOD BOOK GUIDE )

About the Author

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Sceptre
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 0340402695
• ISBN 13: 9780340402696
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 608