Memoirs

Memoirs
William Rees-Mogg

William Rees-Mogg is one of the pivotal figures of post-war Britain. In this brilliantly entertaining memoir he recounts the story of a colourful life, and reflects on the key figures and events of his time.As editor of The Times (his glory years), journalist, commentator, Chairman of the Arts Council, and, later, Chairman of the Broadcasting Standards Council (when he was accused of censorship), William Rees-Mogg has spent his life at the centre of events in politics and journalism.Often controversial and never dull, he has always had the courage to hold strong, fiercely defended opinions which go to the heart of the problems of the day. From his famous defence of Mick Jagger on a charge of possessing cannabis when he attacked the ‘primitive’ impulse to ‘break a butterfly on a wheel’, to his recent criticism of the morality behind the war in Kosovo and defence of monetarism, his writing has demanded attention, to the point of becoming newsworthy in itself.He knew and knows most of the anybodies who were anybody, from royalty to prime ministers, presidents, business magnates and religious leaders, and uses his unique insider perspective to great effect, with perceptive, sometimes provocative, recollections of people such as Rab Butler, Margaret Thatcher, Anthony Eden, Shirley Williams, Roy Jenkins, Robin Day, Rupert Murdoch and many more.From an early age his life was filled with incident – among the many anecdotes are the stories of Noel Coward’s goldfish, his failure to inherit £30,000, his near-shooting at Trinity College, Oxford, an eventful stay at Chequers with Harold Wilson, conspiring with Shirley Williams against the Communists, his doomed attempts to enter politics and dinner with Ronald Reagan and Harold Macmillan.

WILLIAM REES-MOGG

Memoirs

Contents

Cover (#uf2921864-5069-5d8c-83cb-a80aed57a4c8)

Title Page (#u05940f47-0f40-580a-89c1-1ed446e58091)

List of Illustrations

Foreword

Chapter One - The Young Actress

Chapter Two - The Young Officer

Chapter Three - A House Built on a Hill

Chapter Four - A Peak in Darien

Chapter Five - But we’ll do more, Sempronius

Chapter Six - Everyone Wants to Be Attorney General

Chapter Seven - ‘A University Extension Course’

Chapter Eight - Thank you very much for … the Sunday Times

Chapter Nine - Sadat’s Viennese Ideal

Chapter Ten - Rivers of Blood

Chapter Eleven - ‘The future of Europe is not a matter of the price of butter’

Chapter Twelve - Palladio on Mendip

Chapter Thirteen - The Times ’ Lost Year

Chapter Fourteen - My Life as a Quangocrat

Chapter Fifteen - The Best of Business

Chapter Sixteen - My Road to Bibliomania

Chapter Seventeen - R. v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, ex parte Rees-Mogg

Chapter Eighteen - ‘ An Humbler Heaven ’

Index

Acknowledgements

Picture Section

Copyright

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

List of Illustrations

William, c. 1936 (Private Collection)

Cholwell, 1936 (Private Collection)

Fletcher, Beatrice, Aunty Molly, William and Andy, 1936 (Private Collection)

William, c. 1946 (Private Collection)

William as President of the Oxford Union, 1951 (Private Collection)

William reading the Evening Standard (Photograph by Otto Karminski © Times Newspapers)

The Rees-Mogg family at Ston Easton (Photograph by Anne Rees-Mogg)

Iverach McDonald being presented with a salver by William, 1973 (© Times Newspapers)

Roy Jenkins and William, 1978 (Private Collection)

Harold Wilson, William and Marcia Williams, 1963 (Photograph by Kelvin Brodie © Times Newspapers)

William addressing editorial staff, 1980 (Photograph by Bill Warhurst © Times Newspapers)

Press conference in London to announce the sale of the Times Newspapers Ltd to Rupert Murdoch (© Times Newspapers)

William with Margaret Thatcher, 1999 (Private Collection)

Pope John Paul II and William (Private Collection)

William with Alfonoso de Zulueta and Shirley Williams, 1966 (Photograph by Stanley Devon)

William photographed in 1982 (Photograph by Bill Warhurst © Times Newspapers)

William’s eightieth birthday (Private Collection)