A Very British Ending (Catesby Series)
Page 37
The Right Honourable
Lord Wilson of Rievaulx
K.G.O.B.EF.R.S.
James Harold Wilson
1916–1995
It began with the order of service and protocol for the funeral. There was then a list of hymns. The final page was Mary’s poem to her husband. Catesby read it in silence – and hoped no one could see his tears.
My love you have stumbled slowly
On the quiet way to death
And you lie where the wind blows strongly
With a salty spray on its breath
For this men of the island bore you
Down paths where the branches meet
And the only sounds were the crunching grind
Of the gravel beneath their feet
And the sighing slide of the ebbing tide
On the beach where the breakers meet.
It was a very British ending.
Acknowledgements
First of all, most grateful thanks to Lady Mary Wilson of Rievaulx for giving me permission to use her poem which concludes my novel. It is a perfectly balanced poem and one of the most moving elegies of recent times. I would like to point out that Lady Wilson’s poem was not part of the Order of Service at Lord Wilson’s funeral, but was written a number of years later. This book is a work of fiction.
As always, thanks to Julia for her encouragement, understanding and patience.
My agent Maggie Hanbury is the best agent a writer could have. Once again, she has proved a valuable source of guidance and good sense. I would also like to Harriet Poland at the agency for being cheerful, helpful and efficient.
I am very grateful to my publisher, Piers Russell-Cobb, for valuing and trusting me as an author. Our conversations are always enjoyable and extremely useful. And thanks also to Joe Harper at Arcadia Books for his help and enthusiasm.
My editing team, Martin Fletcher and Angeline Rothermundt, are absolutely fantastic. Martin has the intuition of an artist. This is the second time he has breathed life and fluency into my rough draft. Angeline has now polished five of my books into shape. I cannot thank her enough for turning me into a much better author than I was eight years ago.
This was an extremely difficult book to write. The Secret State and the machinations of power are almost impossible to research. Perhaps there are times when a novelist can make better sense of things than a historian. In any case, the following bibliography is from where I started.
Bibliography
Aldrich, Richard J. The Hidden Hand: Britain, America and Cold War Secret Intelligence. The Overlook Press, Woodstock and New York, 2002.
belgranoinquiry.com/article-archive/the-peruvian-peace-plan
Bristow, Bill. My Father the Spy: Deceptions of an MI6 Officer. WBML ePublishing & Media Company Ltd., Ross-on-Wye, 2012.
Bristow, Desmond with Bill Bristow. A Game of Moles: The Deceptions of an MI6 Officer. Little, Brown and Company, London, 1993.
Carter, Miranda. Anthony Blunt: His Lives. Macmillan, London, 2001.
Corera, Gordon. MI6: Life and Death in the British Secret Service. Orion Books Ltd, London, 2012.
Davenport-Hines, Richard. An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo. William Collins, London, 2013.
Director’s Log – CIA FOIA
Dorrill, Stephen and Ramsay, Robin. Smear! Wilson and the Secret State. Grafton, London, 1992.
Kotkin, Stephen. Stalin: Paradoxes of Power 1878–1928. Allen Lane, London, 2014.
Leigh, David. The Wilson Plot: The Intelligence Services and the Discrediting of a Prime Minister. William Heinemann Ltd, London, 1988.
Macintyre, Ben. A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal. Bloomsbury, London, 2014.
Peruvian Peace Plan – RNA 10 Area www.rna-10-area.net/files/peru.pdf
Pimlott, Ben. Harold Wilson. Harper Collins, London, 1993.
Watson, Ian. Riverbank City: A Bremen Canvas. Blaupause Books, Hamburg, 2013.
Wright, Peter. Spycatcher. Viking Penguin, New York, 1987.
Copyright
Arcadia Books Ltd
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London W10 6PH
www.arcadiabooks.co.uk
First published by Arcadia Books 2015
Copyright © Edward Wilson 2015
Edward Wilson has asserted his moral right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publishers.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This Ebook edition published in 2015
ISBN 978–1–910050–73–6
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Author’s Statement
Prologue
Contents
A Very British Ending
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Copyright