The Bookseller tells us that, following his death last week, two books on Jeremy Thorpe are being rushed out:
Little, Brown will be first, releasing Jeremy Thorpe by Michael Bloch on 16th December, less than two weeks after Thorpe’s death.
The book chronicles Thorpe’s “rapid rise and spectacular fall from grace”. ... Bloch’s “magisterial biography is not just a brilliant retelling of this amazing story; years in the making, it is also the definitive character study of one of the most fascinating figures in post-war British politics”, said Little, Brown. ...
Penguin Random House’s Viking, an imprint of Penguin General, will release Conspiracy by Telegraph journalist John Preston in early 2016. ...
Preston will draw on previously unseen material and years of research for his “explosive exposé”.
The
Daily Mail is already publishing Bloch's revelations under headlines like - "Did Jeremy Thorpe have a gay lover thrown to his death from a yacht?"
Probably not, you suspect, but I do like the sound of one character Bloch introduces us to: the Chief Constable of Devon, Colonel Ranulph ‘Streaky’ Bacon.
Delighted to read such an old-school Fleet Street feature, recycling all the old cliches, even down to the (alleged) lovers having a "romp"! Fritz Spiegl would have loved deriding the telling of this "story" ... I think that's the right word for it.
ReplyDeleteBut maybe press standards are slipping - I am not sure old subs would have allowed their scandal-writer to lay claim to a notorious charge:
"Michael Bloch told the story of how he was accused of plotting the murder of his ex-lover Norman Scott"
Honestly, you have to admit that Thorpe would have been a lousy government minister, had he turned up in government. Thorpe congregated a clan of alleged shooters, but in the clan (allegedly), nobody was prepared to shoot Norman Scott.
ReplyDeleteScott was an annoying problem. To be removed. So Andrew Newton shot Scott's dog and didn't shoot Norman Scott, which is where the court case started.
Thorpe would have been a lousy minister. He couldn't find anyone to fix his personal problems.
LibDem ministers in recent years, acting on a non-dog killing manifesto, have helped the UK to become a more pleasant place to live.
Pretty shit, but better than the Tory offering..
So it was Bloch who did it !
ReplyDelete