Tuesday 9 April 2013

Sir David Mitchell

AUTHOR
SIR DAVID sadly died in August 2014 Sir David Mitchell is the father of Andrew Mitchell former MP.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/feb/04/andrew-mitchell-plebgate-stitched


Despite leaving school at sixteen with few qualifications, David Mitchell achieved success in not one, but two concurrent careers.

David Mitchell was born in 1928, son of James Mitchell and Mona Elizabeth Blackett née Bower. He was educated at Aldenham and chose market gardening as a career. He became a member of Transport and General Workers’ Union and was awarded a scholarship to their summer school.

His political career carried him from back bench MP for Basingstoke to become one of Margaret Thatcher’s Ministers. His portfolios included Small Business Policy, Local Government in Northern Ireland to Transport Minister, covering British Rail, Buses, Aviation, Ports, Shipping and the Channel Tunnel, also negotiations which opened the way for the cut price airlines now beloved by millions of travellers.

He was a member of the strife-torn St Pancras Borough Council from 1956-59; MP for Basingstoke 1964-83 and for North  West Hampshire 1983-97, Opposition Whip 1965-67. He was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for: Industry 1979-81, Northern Ireland 1981-83, Transport 1983-86 and from 1986-88 he held the position of Minister of State for Transport.

Except during his Ministerial period, he was for many years joint MD and then Chairman of El Vino wine merchants with also their famous Fleet Street watering hole.

The reader is invited to accompany Sir David on his journey through a life dedicated to his passions for politics and wine. As we progress, much inside information is imparted, spiced with humour and anecdote, making the book accessible and enjoyable for the enthusiast, the lay reader and student alike.

Sir David is a Member of the Worshipful Company of Vintners, being Swan Warden in 1989 and Master in 1992.

He was knighted in 1988 and in retirement lives in Hampshire.

Sir David Mitchell Wikipedia

REVIEWS


...good natured account of this part of that bigger story should be read as the tonic to Margaret Thatcher's gin.
Matthew Parris (Foreword)


... contains a raft of anecdotes from a political career which lasted more than three decades.....the best bits of the book were the chapters detailing David's Ministerial career during the Thatcher years, where between 1979 and 1988 he served at Industry, Northern Ireland and then Transport, which is where I first met him in my early days as a lobbyist for the ports industry. His recollections of the way government was run in those days provide a welcome contrast to the shambles that exists today.
Iain Dale's Diary


Over the break I’ve been looking at, among others, From House to House, Sir David Mitchell, who was a minister under Margaret Thatcher. Oddly enough, all he has to say about her fall in 1990 is that he refused to tell his local constituency association how he had voted in the first ballot - this is the Rosencrantz and Guilderstern school of historical writing. The book is privately published by The Memoir Club of Durham, and I suspect there may be some nuggets lying around in their warehouse - after all, nearly everyone has something interesting in their lives.
Simon Hoggart - Guardian


Sir David Mitchell reveals an intimate view of the conservative leadership. His quiet enthusiasm for political life makes him a fascinating and incisive chronicler of the inner workings of government. Matthew Parris recounts in his foreword, that Sir David was known for his ‘quick mind, pleasant manner, and steady nerve, he did more than smooth the way he delivered.’

He embodies the values that made the conservatives such a formidable force for so long. The world has changed since the political times David Mitchell brings back to life.




Price £18.00  P & P £3.00 UK £4.50 Europe £7.50  ROW
Available on   http://www.thememoirclub.co.uk/   email: memoirclub@msn.com   or tel 01913735660 with card details and address




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