Glimmers of twilight

Description:

"One day in 1974 Joe Stone, Harold Wilson's doctor, walked into the 10 Downing Street office of the Prime Minister's Press Secretary:" "'Sitting down, he asked, in his usually slightly excitable voice, whether we could discuss ways of taking the weight of Marcia off the Prime Minister. I said I thought nothing could be done, even if the Prime Minister wished it, which I doubted." "Joe then said that he could "dispose" of her in such a way that it would seem to be from natural causes. He added that he would sign the death certificate and that there would not be a problem. As Agatha Christie and the redtop tabloids might have put it, that was an invitation to murder ... '" "Harold Wilson's second government, following victory in the first general election of 1974, provided the most compelling political soap opera of the post-war period. The turbulent relationship between press secretary Joe Haines and Wilson's personal and political secretary Marcia Williams became the stuff of political legend, gossip and intrigue followed unchecked along the corridors of power, and Wilson's surprise resignation in 1976 stunned the nation - and to this day remains a favourite subject for conspiracy theorists, despite the overwhelming evidence otherwise." "Joe Haine's first account of his time in No. 10 - The Politics of Power, published in 1977 - caused a sensation with its revelations about the 'lavender list' of Wilson's resignation honours. Written with the benefit of longer hindsight and greater historical perspective, Glimmers of Twilight now provides the definitive account of this extraordinary episode in political history."--Jacket.

subjects: Biography,  Politics and government,  Prime ministers

People: Harold Wilson Sir (1916-),  Joe Haines

Places: Great Britain

Times: 1964-1979