Harold, row the boat aground

Paul Foot

  • Memoirs 1916-1964: The Making of a Prime Minister by Harold Wilson
    Weidenfeld/Joseph, 214 pp, £14.95, October 1986, ISBN 0 7181 2775 7

Since this is such a sad book, let us start with something cheerful. One evening in March 1966, on an assignment to cover the general election campaign in the West Midlands, I found myself at the back of the Birmingham Rag Market, surrounded by what seemed like millions of people. The thousand seats in the front had been taken up long before the start of the meeting. The huge amphitheatre was covered with people standing, jammed together, craning their heads forward so as not to miss a word.

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