Jonathan Sumption was the next significant joiner. He too had been rejected by 4 Essex together with David Neuberger,70 and was rejected by 3 Essex as well. He had been a fellow in mediaeval history at Magdalen College, Oxford and amongst his other talents he was a speechwriter for Keith Joseph, who was Margaret Thatcher’s mentor. Joseph was expected to challenge Heath for the leadership in 1975 until an unfortunate speech about eugenics (not written by Sumption) led to a media furore and put him out of the running, leaving the way open 1 Garden Court for Thatcher’s ultimate success. Chambers had by now outgrown 1 Brick Court. There was an annexe originally in Middle Temple Lane where Nicholas Phillips had shared a room with Nicholas Lyell. In the mid-1970s chambers acquired rooms in an annexe at 1 Garden Court. It had two floors. The second floor housed Bob Alexander and Roger Buckley in the larger rooms. Richard Aikens and Peregrine Simon shared a very small room, and Julian Malins had a tiny room which was difficult to enter because of the problematic air quality caused by the constant smoking of cigars. The first floor had Nick Phillips, Nick Lyell, Hilary Heilbron, and Jonathan Hirst in the box room. By now Burley worked with three assistants. His able deputy was Simon Perry. Nigel Connor was next in seniority and there was also Fred Mason whose particular claim to fame was that he had driven the first 70 One talks about the man who turned down the Beatles – this seems more like turning down the Rolling Stones and Elton John as well.
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