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IN THE THICK OF IT, WITH SIR ALAN DUNCAN
IT’S A GREAT SHAME that I don’t believe in reincarnation, because I now know exactly what I’d like to come back as; Musca domestica, the common housefly. Whilst their lifespan may be a modest 28 days, that should be just enough time to position myself on a wall in Boris Johnson’s sitting room, as he sits down with a glass of whisky and a copy of Sir Alan Duncan’s political diaries. From that vantage point, I could gleefully witness the fallout. “I had a frank relationship with Boris, and with other frontline politicians around me,” says Sir Alan. “Our newspapers can provide an account of events, but the feeling of the time – with all its uncertainties and the lack of hindsight – can only be captured in a diary, with its capacity to reflect an unfiltered account of events, unvarnished.” “My motivation for any criticism of anyone at the time was a government or a politician underperforming or behaving badly, so the driver of creating a diary was simply catharsis.” “The pettiness of poor decision-making and the strutting of tiresome egos are a constant frustration for someone working in government. The only way to ‘keep calm and carry on’ was to write it all down. Using my pen or keyboard I was able to ‘rage at the page,’ to download and vent my feelings.”
a book, securing a publisher and offering some wise comments on the themes that most deserved exploration. How did you create the final manuscript?
I began with notes and my appointment diaries, and I was also fortunate enough to have the assistance of Dr Nigel Fletcher, a Conservative political adviser from the days when the party was in opposition. He set about the task of rifling through the archive to locate original diary entries, appointment cards and correspondence, then cross-referenced these for accuracy, detail and context. We worked with Arabella Pike and a team at HarperCollins – Arabella has a reputation for being the best in the business and she contributed not just ruthless professionalism but also fun and mischievous laughter. Our copy editor Peter James demonstrated commendable attention to detail and his colleague Iain Hunt organised proofs, whilst Jo Thompson selected photographs and ensured they were cleared for publication from a copyright point of view. We began with 300,000 ‘raw’ words and took out repetition – plus some things I thought were too gossipy – but also material which was deemed too sensitive. In the end we had 180,000 words, which is about 512
pages worth of finished manuscript. As a former minister, I then had to submit it to the Cabinet Office for comment. Such publications need to adhere to The Radcliffe Report of 1976, which states that whilst a minister should be free to use their own ministerial experience to give an account of their work, publication remains subject to redacting matters pertaining to national security and international security, and to maintaining the working relationships on which our system of government is based. This process did take some degree of negotiation, and took up considerable time, but we managed to navigate this tricky territory. In the book’s introduction you remark with ‘cool hindsight’ that some comments might be ‘unfair or ungenerous.’ Will you have any trepidation, seeing it on the shelves, and do you fear a phone call or text from anyone in particular?
My motivation for any criticism of someone in the book was only ever frustration over bad behaviour or substandard actions when decisiveness, objectivity or responsibility were needed. If there’s one slight pang it’s reserved for Theresa May. Her premiership was a cauldron of bubbling fury and we never knew her as a Prime Minister during ‘normal service,’ only assessing her in a time of Brexit and the schism it created. >>
“Right from when I first found myself working in high level politics, it was so engaging that I decided to diligently create a diary that I could look back on in years to come. I didn’t want to forget anything,” says Sir Alan, and takes up the story in his own words. When did you decide to publish your diary?
I never intended to publish these diaries, but by chance I found myself working in the middle of one of the most disrupted periods of Parliament. I met, by chance, Martin Redfern of literary agency Northbank. It was 2019 and as conversation turned to talking about working amid a unique period for UK politics, he asked if I kept any notes for an autobiography. I told him, truthfully, that I kept diaries but had no intention of publishing them. He was suitably excited by the prospect though, and became an enthusiastic champion, helping to develop the pitch for
Above: The best of ‘frenemies!’ Boris Johnson and Sir Alan Duncan clashed over issues of Brexit and loyalty to the incumbent Prime Minister Theresa May during a unique time for British politics.
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