‘I’m sorry to bother you, Peter, but you were a famously successful Leader of Their Lordships and I wondered whether you had any tips before I took it on.’
‘All you’ve got to remember is that you are the headmaster of a second-rate public school.’
Lord Carrington’s answer to my enquiry was entirely characteristic: funny, and flattering, as though he knew you would instinctively understand the joke. You and he, he implied, belonged in the same place.
It was a technique which he lavished with great success on those who worked for him. He was much loved in Their Lordships, at the Foreign Office and at the Ministry of Defence — and with reason. He was fun to work for and loyal to those who worked for him. He was widely admired outside his departments and lacked ‘side’. His myriad friends loved him for his company above all, but also for the lustre he brought to their circle.
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