num_pages: 640
description: At the outset of the Second World War, John Colville, a young diplomat, was seconded from the foreign office to Number 10 Downing Street. For nine of the next sixteen years, he served three prime ministers - briefly Neville Chamberlain and Clement Attlee - but for much of that time as Private Secretary to Winston Churchill. During those momentous years Colville kept a diary, though this was forbidden by wartime regulations, locking it nightly into his desk at Number 10. Colville seldom left Churchill's side and the insights and observations he records paint an invaluable portrait of the nation's most famous leader both in times of war and peace. Transcribed and edited by Colville before his death, this new edition adds material from WWII not in the original hardback.
language: English
title: The Fringes of Power : Downing Street Diaries 1939-1955
titlecomplete: The Fringes of Power : Downing Street Diaries 1939-1955
characters: Winston Churchill
genres: Biography, War, Politics, British Literature, Memoir, Nonfiction, Diary, Biography Memoir, History, World War II
ratings_count: 150
places: England, London, England
publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson