| TimewellPress |
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Ringside SeatJames AllasonMargaret Thatcher
From Mountbatten & Churchill to the Definitive Account of the Profumo Affair...James Allason was one of the last generation of officers and gentlemen to play a significant part in politics. Knowing four prime ministers and most of the key political and society figures of the second half of the twentieth century, his book crackles with revealing anecdotes - including the definitive account of the Profumo affair and how he once had Enoch Powell arrested as a suspect spy. James Allason started his career as a cavalry officer in pre-War India, playing polo with Maharajahs, and working for the Viceroy (to whom he counselled humility). He led his mounted troops into World War II on a charger, only reluctantly accepting mechanisation into tanks. After being wounded at close quarters with the Japanese, he worked with Mountbatten's military planners - Peter Fleming and Dean Rusk - bringing sanity to the wilder schemes of Wingate in Burma. He paints a vivid picture of the direction of one of the least understood but most critical campaigns of the war. Recalled to London he advised Churchill in the Cabinet War Rooms, learning to accommodate the Prime Minister's eccentricities. His advice to Attlee influenced the creation of the state of Israel. The consummate insider, he sheds new light on the Cuban Missile Crisis and reveals for the first time the true story of the Profumo Affair and the role of the intelligence services in this. He is credited by Margaret Thatcher as the architect of the policy to allow council tenants to buy their homes. JAMES ALLASON is the son of a First World War hero, became a regular soldier, experienced ‘an interesting war’, working closely with Churchill and Mountbatten. A Conservative MP from 1959, he was Profumo’s PPS and helped create the policies that led to the premiership of Margaret Thatcher. He lives in Belgravia where he continues to play bridge well enough to annoy his friends. Reviews
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