Alan Clark: The Biography

Front Cover
Orion, Sep 14, 2009 - Biography & Autobiography - 488 pages

The unknown life of Alan Clark, celebrated diarist, womaniser, Tory MP and controversial minister in Mrs Thatcher's governments.

Celebrated diarist, famous womaniser, Tory MP and controversial minister - a castle-owning toff and lecherous cad to some, to others a colourful and life-enhancing figure - Alan Clark was politically incorrect before the term was invented. He is best remembered for his sensational diaries - but what of the man? Alan Clark rarely spoke about his upbringing, even to his family. Was it as unhappy as he hinted?

Ion Trewin has had unrestricted access to extensive family papers (including twenty years of unpublished diaries). He has talked to politicians, to those who knew him at the prep school which burnt down, to friends at Eton and Oxford, and to some of the many women he found impossible to resist despite a loving marriage of forty-one years. From his struggles to teach himself to write to formidable historian and diarist, from his enthusiasm for Margaret Thatcher to the 'drunk at the Commons dispatch box' affair, ALAN CLARK THE BIOGRAPHY is a revealing and absorbing account of a remarkable and unforgettable man.

 

Contents

Title Page
22
ONE Origins and Influences
29
TWO Early Memories
36
THREE Worlds at
FOUR New Home New School
Five Eton and Onwards
SIX Oxford Prague Cars and Girls
SEVEN America and Possible Careers
NINETEEN Barbarossa and Family
TWENTY Changes in Direction
TWENTYONE Banking with Publishers
TWENTYTWO Into Politics
TWENTYTHREE Mixed Emotions
TWENTYFOUR Falklands and Papas Death
TWENTYSIX Reviewing Defence
TWENTYEIGHT A Fit of Pique

EIGHT First Love and the
NINE Words a House and More Words
TEN Meeting Jane
ELEVEN Moscow Nights and Days
TWELVE Courting Jane
THIRTEEN Marriage and a
FOURTEEN The Bargains Affair
FIFTEEN The Young Historian
SIXTEEN A Steady Nerve
SEVENTEEN Facing the Music
EIGHTEEN Tackling the Second World
THIRTY The Making of the Diaries
THIRTYONE Jane and the Diaries aftermath
THIRTYTHREE The Making of The Tories
THIRTYFIVE Worryingly
THIRTYSIX High Hopes
THIRTYEIGHT Hopes Shattered
THIRTYNINE Last Rites
Notes
Acknowledgements
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Alan Clark: The Biography
Ion Trewin
Snippet view - 2009
Alan Clark: The Biography
Ion Trewin
No preview available - 2010
Alan Clark: The Biography
Ion Trewin
No preview available - 2009

Common terms and phrases

AC diary AC to LH AC's Alan and Jane Alan Clark Alan wrote Alan's Alastair Campbell Alison Andrew Antony Beevor April asked Barbarossa Blond boys Bratton British Celly Cockerell Colin Conservative Crete Daily Telegraph Defence Donkeys early election entry Eriboll Eton February feel girls going Graham Guilt Edged Haig Harkess historian Hugh Trevor-Roper Hugo Young Hutchinson interview James Jane Clark Jane's January John John Major July June Kenneth Clark Last Diaries later Baron letter LHCMA Liddell Hart London looked Lord lunch Margaret Thatcher married Matrix Churchill Matthew Parris memoirs morning never October Oxford Party Peter political Prime Minister published realised recalls remembers reported Robert Saltwood Saltwood Castle Scott Inquiry Secretary Sissons Sue Lawley Sunday talk things thought told took Tory Trevor-Roper walk week Weidenfeld World worried writing young Zermatt

About the author (2009)

Ion Trewin is a London publisher. Originally a journalist, he was Literary Editor of The Times 1972-79. He was Alan Clark's editor and publisher for the original 'Diaries' and following his death edited two further volumes of the celebrated diaries. In 2008 he edited and introduced THE HUGO YOUNG PAPERS: Thirty Years of British Politics Off the Record (Allen Lane) which won the Channel 4 Political Book of the Year Award 2009. Married with a son who is a literary agent and a daughter who is a teacher, he has since 2006 been literary director of the Man Booker prizes. He was chairman of the Cheltenham Literature Festival 1996-2007.

Bibliographic information

TitleAlan Clark: The Biography
AuthorIon Trewin
PublisherOrion, 2009
ISBN0297857827, 9780297857822
Length488 pages
Subjects › 

Biography & Autobiography / General
Biography & Autobiography / Political
  
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