Paul Channon and The Winslow Boy

Iain Dale reports that the former Conservative cabinet minister Paul Channon has died.

Time, I think, to uncork one of my favourite trivial facts. Channon was the dedicatee of Terence Rattigan's play The Winslow Boy, as this article confirms:

Rattigan began writing the play in July 1945 while Great Britain was in the midst of a General Election which would oust Winston Churchill, the hero of the war, from office. We know Rattigan was enthusiastic about the theme because he read portions of the work in progress to his close friend, the well-known man about town, diarist and Conservative MP, "Chips" Channon. His reaction was encouraging. Rattigan finished the play in just six and half weeks and dedicated it to Channon s young son, Paul who would later be a member of Mrs Thatcher's government.

As I recall, the dedication said something like "In hope that he will live to see a world where this play's moral will not have to be pointed." Whether Mrs Thatcher quite brought this about, I shall leave you to decide.

Later. Channon's Telegraph obituary gives the dedication as "in the hope that he may live to see a world in which this tale will point no moral".