ID: 2550
As it Happened
ATTLEE, Clement
Category: History
Place/Publisher/Date:
London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1954.
Description:
First edition; reprint; 8vo; original cloth boards. Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon's copy with his bookplate loosely-inserted. Annotated and highlighted in pencil throughout by Eden. For example on p.165 (commenting on opposition to the nationalisation of the iron and steel industries): "He [i.e. Attlee] always attributes the lowest motivation to his opponents & assumes the highest in himself"; on p.170 (commenting on Marshall Aid): "& I who suggested it to Ernie [Bevin] in his room in the House"; and on p.172 (commenting on Attlee's claim that Western Europe 'is today a collection of disunited elements lying between two great continental Powers'): "Much stronger than that." In 1955, Attlee contested the general election against Anthony Eden who was seeking a mandate as the new leader of the Conservative Party following Churchill's retirement in April of the same year. It resulted in a victory for the Conservatives who achieved the largest party share of the vote at a post-war election: a vindication for Eden. Attlee, having led the Labour Party for an unparalleled twenty years and widely regarded as one of Britain's greatest 20th-century Prime Ministers. A very good copy, faded to the spine.
Price £1250.00
