Books from Birlinn and Polygon

George Younger:
A Life Well Lived

Last month David Torrance launched his new political biography, George Younger: A Life Well Lived, at Dover House in Whitehall, London, and it was well attended by the elite of the political world. Here David remembers the evening's events and the guests that turned out to fondly remember George Younger and his life well lived.

Caption 1: A light-hearted moment at the beginning of the evening. The publisher Hugh Andrew and me with George Younger’s three sons – James, Charlie and Andrew – together with their sons and daughters. It was great to have so many of the Younger family, many of whom helped with the book, at the launch.

Caption 2: Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who succeeded George Younger as Scottish Secretary in 1986, talking to Diana, Viscountess Younger of Leckie, George’s widow. Sir Malcolm was very helpful in responding to my pedantic questions when I was researching the biography.

Caption 3: Signing a book for fellow political biographer D. R. Thorpe. Richard has written authorised biographies of the former Prime Ministers Sir Alec Douglas-Home (a mentor of George Younger’s) and Anthony Eden. He’s currently working on a new biography of Harold Macmillan.

Caption 4: With Diana, Viscountess Younger of Leckie and Lord Tom King, who took over from George as Defence Secretary when he retired from the Cabinet in 1989. It was fascinating to speak to someone with intimate knowledge of UK defence policy in the final years of the Cold War.

Caption 5: Welcoming Baroness Thatcher to the launch at Dover House. She was on good form and had fond memories of working with George Younger when she was Prime Minister and he was her first Secretary of State for Scotland.

Caption 6: Lord Wakeham, another former Cabinet colleague of George’s, making a speech about half way through the evening. The event was held in the old Minister of State’s office in Dover House, the former Whitehall home of the Scottish Office – where George worked as Scottish Secretary from 1979-86 – and now the renamed Scotland Office.

Caption 7: The obligatory ‘I met two former Prime Ministers’ photograph. Although I knew Sir John Major was intending to come to the launch I didn’t know Baroness Thatcher could make it until the afternoon before the event. It was a real honour to have them both there.

Caption 8: Baroness Thatcher and me with the book’s publisher, Hugh Andrew. Hugh had just informed Lady Thatcher that my next book – We in Scotland: Thatcherism in a Cold Climate – was to be about her rather fraught relationship with Scotland. The news raised a smile.

Caption 9: Me with Robin Gill, who founded the Royal Anniversary Trust, which has administered prizes and educational schemes since the Queen’s 40th anniversary as Monarch in 1992. He sought out George Younger to become Chairman of the Trust to oversee a series of events that year.

Caption 10: The great and the good were truly out in force. This is me with the Duke of Montrose, one of Scotland’s premier peers and currently the Scottish Conservatives’ spokesman in the House of Lords.

Caption 11: The BBC’s premier political documentary maker, Michael Cockerell, talking to my cousin, Malcolm Bennie. The launch was a good excuse to indulge myself, and inviting people like Cockerell was sheer – and fascinating – self-indulgence.

Caption 12: A quartet of Ladies. From left to right: Lady King, Lady Norma Major, Lady Vallance and Lady Forsyth.