Experiences of an Optimist

Fülszöveg

John Redcliffe-Maud is one of the most brilliant and versatile diplomats and civil servants of our time. His memoirs describe a life of public service - a long, full life distinguished by his fine mind, his wit and sensitivity, his dedication and his infectious optimism.
The first British Ambassador to the South African Republic and the last High Commissioner there, Lord Redcliffe-Maud was in South Africa at the time of Mr Macmillan's 'Wind of Change' speech in i960, of the Sharpe-ville tragedy, Dr Verwoerd's near assassination and South Africa's withdrawal from the Commonwealth. A personal friend of Sir Seretse Khama, he saw through the constitution-drafting for the three new Commonwealth member-states - Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland.
In 1945, he had become the head of the new Education Ministry under Ellen Wilkinson, and helped for seven years to bring the great Education Act of 1944 into effect. Throughout the War he had been Lord Woolton's right-hand man, at the Food... Tovább

Fülszöveg

John Redcliffe-Maud is one of the most brilliant and versatile diplomats and civil servants of our time. His memoirs describe a life of public service - a long, full life distinguished by his fine mind, his wit and sensitivity, his dedication and his infectious optimism.
The first British Ambassador to the South African Republic and the last High Commissioner there, Lord Redcliffe-Maud was in South Africa at the time of Mr Macmillan's 'Wind of Change' speech in i960, of the Sharpe-ville tragedy, Dr Verwoerd's near assassination and South Africa's withdrawal from the Commonwealth. A personal friend of Sir Seretse Khama, he saw through the constitution-drafting for the three new Commonwealth member-states - Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland.
In 1945, he had become the head of the new Education Ministry under Ellen Wilkinson, and helped for seven years to bring the great Education Act of 1944 into effect. Throughout the War he had been Lord Woolton's right-hand man, at the Food Ministry and at Reconstruction. In the 1950s, he headed the Ministry of Fuel and Power and in the 1960s was Chairman of the controversial Royal Commission on English Local Government.
He has served - frequently at the centre of vital events - in peace and war, in Whitehall and abroad, under coalition, Socialist and Tory ministers, and, since 1967, as an Independent life member of the House of Lords. He writes with modesty and understanding of the excitements and frustrations of his many-sided career.
From 1963 to 1976 he was Master of University College, Oxford, thus returning to his first interest: the academic life. For John Maud was an Oxford don at the age of twenty-three and Master of Birbeck College, London, ten years later. Vissza