Lucky George: Memoirs of an Anti-politician [Paperback]

Not everybody gets to tell a story like George Walden. Not everybody manages to make the move from post-war Dagenham to the corridors of Westminster via Moscow, Beijing, Paris and the FCO. Still fewer get the chance to meet and work with (or should that be against) some of the great political and cultural figures of the late 20th century and then write about it with such wit and frankness. "Lucky George" is however the story of such a person. The cast of characters that take the stage in this remarkable and candidly recounted tale are as varied as they are fascinating and range from the aromatically incontinent Mr Latham who took it upon himself to keep the Walden household supplied with china liberated from the Lime Grove BBC canteen, and a gun crazy, nuclear-shelter-owning rock collecting survivalist, to top government figures of the day such as David Owen, Lord Carrington and Mrs T herself. For those interested in the men and women behind the public mask, there is many a toe-curling treat in store by way of off guard comments - witness Henry Kissinger's analysis of the Iran/Iraq war ("what I think is, pity only one can lose"), and incisive, sometimes biting observations of many of our best-known and cherished public figures. The story itself moves through a panopoly of theatrical sets. Starting with Cold War Moscow, the obvious next step for a young man with a First Class Honours Degree in Russian, George Walden takes us on a candid and often very amusing tour of some of the venerable outposts of the FCO, detailing the often absurd diplomatic customs and traditions that still remain as well as the vital duties that are carried out by that august department.. During his stay in China at the height of the Cultural Revolution for instance, lucky George tells us he found his time equally divided up between divising a formula to prevent Maoist hoards from invading Hong Kong and collecting leaves from a Beijing park for scientific analysis of the city's dust. Observation of two foreign systems of demagogy: Soviet russia and Red China left him under no doubts about his feelings towards communism, and his observation of a domestic one: the latter years of the Thatcher administration leads him to make some thought provoking and refreshingly honest comments on democracy as well. The young Walden obviously had an eye for the ladies and prior to his marriage to reknowned art historian and picture restorer Sarah Hunt, and his various and occasionally dangerous liasons are given prominence in the early part of the book adding extra spice to the tale and show an aspect of Harry Palmer-type FCO activites that not alota people know abaht. But perhaps the most refreshing aspect of "Lucky George" is its breezy, open and honest style that not only makes for an easy and delightful read but lends the common touch. I got the feeling that George Walden himself cannot quite believe how he got to be where he was and do what he did, the whole thing, from Cambridge to three-term MP for Buckinghamshire coming about as some sort of gigantic accident. A man as well-educated and read as George Walden so obviously is could have written a book that was a treatise in snobbery but that is just not the case here. As for accusations name-dropping - well who wouldn't, especially when you have a such stock of insights and comments to draw on. Written with less affection, some of his observations of the great and the good could have been construed as cruel, written with less experience and conviction, some of his frank and forthright opinions on subjects as diverse as Russian liquor, Royal Houshold etiquette and the institution of Parliament could come over as opinionated. However, I found "Lucky George" to be neither of those things. Rather it is the honesty with which Walden deals with the strengths and weaknesses of others as well as himself (including the episode during his time in China when he reported the death by suicide of Deng Xiaoping, only to meet him twenty five-odd years later alive, and if not kicking then certainly breathing) and the genuinity with which he states his (sometimes contoversial, at least within the Tory party) views. Delightful, amusing and told with at least half a tongue-in-cheek, "Lucky George" provides a very entertaining and readable account of the corridors of power by a man who was surprised to find himself lucky enough to be there. Matthew Salter

I didn't know alot about George Walden when he was an MP, except that he held some unorthodox views on a number of subjects. Now I've read his autobiography, I wish I'd taken more notice. He writes with the ease, erudition and wit one would expect from a brilliant polymath from Cambridge and the FCO, but it's his candour and honesty which takes the breath away. How can someone affect superiority who's just spent umpteen chapters publically doubting the worth of their whole career? It strikes me that Walden is saying something unremarkable but which no-one dares say. What was it he said ..."people who drive 4WD monsters and then moan about air pollution". We're all at it, wanting it all ways up. Morbid sentimentality about the NHS, bless it, and then refusing to cough up the readies. Frustrated - I bet he was. Superior - no, just someone who tells it as he saw it.

Anyway, I've got that off my chest. If anyone wants to read a series of sparkling vignettes about Mrs T, Ted Heath, Tony Benn et al, this is the place. If you are sick of party politics as currently constituted (on both sides of the Atlantic), I urge you to read this book.

George Walden is like the obituaries in the Economist - you've very rarely ever heard of the subject (sorry George, but you were only intermittantly high-profile), but by God, what an interesting life.

As befits a Cambridge scholar Walden displays a breath taking intellectual arrogance throughout this work. Whilst it is indeed a readable political memoir, that was too much the idea, one suspects, when he commenced writing it. A litany of put downs on household names and a puerile description of his pre-married sex life can surely only have been made part of this work when Walden turned his thoughts to the financial rewards he would harvest from ' Lucky George ' by following this approach. A non-entity who feels remarkably superior to most of the great and the good he encountered- who will of course be long remembered after him and his gossipy autobiography.