Escape From the Shadows by Robin Maugham

Author:Robin Maugham
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780340149492
Publisher: Robin Clark
Published: 1972-02-14T13:00:00+00:00

* * *

I returned to England, and I edited three more numbers of Convoy, which could appear only at irregular intervals because of wartime restrictions. The authorities would not allow me enough paper to print the large number of copies needed to make the paper financially viable. After seven numbers it expired.

* * *

My experiences in the war had made me believe that the mass of the troops were discontented with the old regime of the Tory party. But my personal loyalty to Churchill, and my admiration for him, had persuaded me to hope that he would be elected for another term of office.

After dinner on the evening of July 25th, 1945, I had been invited round to the annexe of No. 10 Downing Street. Next day we would know the results of the first General Election to take place since the war had begun. Though his son Randolph was frankly pessimistic, Churchill was still optimistic about the result of the election—so much so that Mary Churchill asked me to come in for a drink after dinner the following evening and to cake her out to the Orchid Room later to celebrate.

By noon on the following day it was dear that the Labour Party had won. Churchill had been heavily defeated. I rang Mary up to ask if she still wanted me to come round. Yes, Mary said, she did. So I put on a dinner-jacket and went round after dinner, bringing an old friend, Michael Parrish, with me.

A few people were sadly gathered in the living-room of the annexe when we arrived—Diana and Duncan Sandys, Mary Churchill, Brendan Bracken and Jack Churchill, Winston’s brother.

Suddenly the door opened and Winston Churchill appeared. Silence fell over the room as he walked in. He was dressed in his open-necked boiler suit and embroidered slippers. He looked stricken. No one said a word. We were all like a lot of actors who had dried up on their cues. He turned towards me. I was the newcomer. So I walked across to him.

“Good evening, sir,” I said. “I’m so very sorry about what has happened.”

For some reason this trice remark pleased him.

“Oh!” he said, smiling at me. “So you are sorry! And your father? And how is he? Is he sorry?”

“Yes, sir,” I said. “He is sorry too.”

“The only thing that matters is England,” Churchill muttered.

He then sat down, beckoning me to a chair beside him. At that moment Anthony Eden came in, looking very fit and bronzed. He stayed only a few minutes.

“I expect I shall see you one of these days,” Churchill said as Eden was leaving, accentuating each word ponderously.

“I don’t think it’s as bad as all that,” Eden replied.

“The Labour Party have inherited a tough proposition,” Churchill said, after Eden had gone. “We cannot stop these strikes. They will be better at it than we were… But hardly had I put down the reins of office, when the horse was taken from me—only to be ridden into a quarry.”

I had

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