Sunday, October 29, 2006

Edinburgh launch

I had the Edinburgh launch of my book, The Scottish Secretaries, on Wednesday at the Macdonald Holyrood Hotel in Edinburgh. It was a pretty awful evening weather-wise but there was a good turnout despite the wind and rain. Lady Younger (George's widow) was there with her son Charlie; Lord and Lady Balfour of Burleigh drove from Clackmannanshire to be there (Lord Balfour is the grandson of a former Scottish Secretary and Lady Balfour is otherwise known as Janet Morgan, who edited Dick Crossman's Diaries in the 1970s). Tam Dalyell was also there, who has reviewed the book for December's edition of The Oldie magazine, as were a few Conservative MSPs, Green MSP Robin Harper and (briefly) the Labour MSP Richard Baker. There was an excellent turnout from former private secretaries - Kenneth Mackenzie, Rev Norman Shanks, Peter Mackay, Archie Rennie and Sir William Kerr Fraser, also a former permanent under-secretary at the Scottish Office - which was especially pleasing as they were so helpful when I was researching the book.

The photograph shows me making a very brief speech after Hugh Andrew, the publisher, introduced me. The launch also earned me a mention on the Scottish Political News blog, which you can read by clicking here.

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