The Prime Minister's Ironing Board and Other State Secrets: True Stories from the Government Archives
Stored in Whitehall's archives are everything from blood-chilling warnings of imminent nuclear attack to comical details of daily life in the corridors of power. Concerned notes from ministers on the subject of the Heir to the Throne's potential brainwashing by Welsh terrorists are shelved alongside worries about housemaids 'on the wobble' at Chequers.

Detailed and surprising plans for royal funerals sit beside reports on suspected spies in the showbiz world and bawdy poetry about the monkeys on the Rock of Gibraltar. And Mary Whitehouse's complaints about the sex education syllabus nestle next to thank-you notes from prisoner 13260/62, also known as Nelson Mandela.

Adam Macqueen, author of the highly acclaimed bestseller Private Eye: The First 50 Years, has searched high and low to present us with some of the most unlikely revelations since the Official secrets act was inaugurated one hundred years ago. Not only about Mrs Thatcher's ironing board, but Ted Heath's car, Harold Macmillan's bedroom carpet, Imelda Marcos and her son Bong Bong's trip to Buckingham Palace and President Eisenhower's particular problem with Winston Churchill's trousers.

1116828071
The Prime Minister's Ironing Board and Other State Secrets: True Stories from the Government Archives
Stored in Whitehall's archives are everything from blood-chilling warnings of imminent nuclear attack to comical details of daily life in the corridors of power. Concerned notes from ministers on the subject of the Heir to the Throne's potential brainwashing by Welsh terrorists are shelved alongside worries about housemaids 'on the wobble' at Chequers.

Detailed and surprising plans for royal funerals sit beside reports on suspected spies in the showbiz world and bawdy poetry about the monkeys on the Rock of Gibraltar. And Mary Whitehouse's complaints about the sex education syllabus nestle next to thank-you notes from prisoner 13260/62, also known as Nelson Mandela.

Adam Macqueen, author of the highly acclaimed bestseller Private Eye: The First 50 Years, has searched high and low to present us with some of the most unlikely revelations since the Official secrets act was inaugurated one hundred years ago. Not only about Mrs Thatcher's ironing board, but Ted Heath's car, Harold Macmillan's bedroom carpet, Imelda Marcos and her son Bong Bong's trip to Buckingham Palace and President Eisenhower's particular problem with Winston Churchill's trousers.

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The Prime Minister's Ironing Board and Other State Secrets: True Stories from the Government Archives

The Prime Minister's Ironing Board and Other State Secrets: True Stories from the Government Archives

by Adam Macqueen
The Prime Minister's Ironing Board and Other State Secrets: True Stories from the Government Archives

The Prime Minister's Ironing Board and Other State Secrets: True Stories from the Government Archives

by Adam Macqueen

Paperback(Reprint)

$12.95 
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Overview

Stored in Whitehall's archives are everything from blood-chilling warnings of imminent nuclear attack to comical details of daily life in the corridors of power. Concerned notes from ministers on the subject of the Heir to the Throne's potential brainwashing by Welsh terrorists are shelved alongside worries about housemaids 'on the wobble' at Chequers.

Detailed and surprising plans for royal funerals sit beside reports on suspected spies in the showbiz world and bawdy poetry about the monkeys on the Rock of Gibraltar. And Mary Whitehouse's complaints about the sex education syllabus nestle next to thank-you notes from prisoner 13260/62, also known as Nelson Mandela.

Adam Macqueen, author of the highly acclaimed bestseller Private Eye: The First 50 Years, has searched high and low to present us with some of the most unlikely revelations since the Official secrets act was inaugurated one hundred years ago. Not only about Mrs Thatcher's ironing board, but Ted Heath's car, Harold Macmillan's bedroom carpet, Imelda Marcos and her son Bong Bong's trip to Buckingham Palace and President Eisenhower's particular problem with Winston Churchill's trousers.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780349138916
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Publication date: 04/01/2015
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 304
Product dimensions: 4.90(w) x 7.70(h) x 3.40(d)

About the Author

Adam Macqueen has worked at Private Eye on and off for fourteen years. He was assistant, deputy and finally acting editor of The Big Issue between 1999 and 2002 and is currently on the editorial team of Popbitch.com. He was also associate producer on Adam Curtis's BBC series All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace. Adam Macqueen lives on the South Coast with his partner.

Table of Contents

Introduction - for recipient's eyes only xiii

Nuclear Family 1

As if God himself had appeared among us - 1945 1

When everything changed - 1945 5

When the boat comes in - 1950 11

Thermonuclear power? Yes please - 1954 14

Be prepared… to die - 1960 15

Mothers' milk - 1961 19

Don't panic! - 1979 21

Royal Revelations 23

The King is (nearly) dead, long live the King - 1935 23

And what would you like your great-grandchildren to be called, ma'am? - 1952 26

The flying duke - 1955 28

The best medicine - 1963 31

Duchy original - 1964 31

What do you buy for the prince who has everything? - 1966 32

Prince Charles, sleeper agent? - 1969 34

No proxy for poxy monarch - 1971 39

Coining it in - 1973 40

Kidnap? Bloody likely - 1974 42

How Harold Wilson saved the Queen Mother from blowing up - 1975 44

Bombers and bouquets - 1979 46

Foreign Fields 50

Lions led by donkeys: a donkey writes - 1915 50

Getting to know these new-fangled Bolsheviks - 1917 54

There may be trouble ahead - 1919 56

Rubbish for Russia - 1921 56

Wales goes to India - 1922 58

French kissing - 1939 60

What I did on my holidays, by Harold Macmillan - 1958 61

Dancing with danger - 1959 62

Libya and let live - 1969 66

Monkey business - 1971 67

Shrinks and Scots - 1975 70

Diplomatic debag- 1979 72

Thatcher-san, karate lady - 1979 74

Whitehall Farces 77

Artistic differences - 1919 77

Fight for your right to party - 1924 80

Publish and be damned - 1925 83

Bishop to king 2-1929 85

Churchill's goose is cooked - 1952 86

Lost in Downing Street - 1964 87

Living dangerously - 1964 88

Ducking the question - 1970 91

Nut worth it - 1974 93

The incredible disappearing MP - 1974 93

Bootle? Computer says no - 1979 97

The lady's not for leaking - 1981 99

Landmark Decisions 102

A blight on Battersea - 1929 102

Tunnel vision - 1929 106

Special deliveries - 1935 109

Something in the air - 1943 110

Estates in a state - 1951 112

Demolition man - 1965 115

Harold Wilson's big idea - 1975 119

Diplomatic Silences 123

Britannia doesn't want to rule beneath the waves - 1929 123

Don't let's be beastly to the Germans - 1937 124

Digging up the dirt - 1953 128

President Eisenhower's artist friend and the trouble with Winston Churchill's trousers - 1955 131

Next time, just get tokens - 1957 134

Big nope to pope hope - 1959 135

Commonwealth doesn't have to mean common - 1960 138

Nelson Mandela's bookshelf - 1962 140

A Chile reception - 1966 144

Good grief- 1974 147

Tricky Dicky no-mates - 1974 147

Well done, Mr Mugabe! - 1980 151

The Falklands, brought to you in association with Argentina - 1982 153

Enemies Within 160

We're the IRA, we're new - 1919 160

Hark the Herald - 1919 161

Cross purposes - 1944 165

The spies shine light on Charlie Chaplin - 1956 166

It's a conspiracy, ma'am - 1963 170

We will fine them on the beaches - 1964 173

The Watergate that wasn't - 1975 176

Spy TV - 1981 181

Strategic Thinking 184

The thin end of the Wedgie - 1957 184

Mrs Thatcher, milk… saviour? - 1970 185

A miner miscalculation - 1974 188

Little by little - 1974 189

It's now or never - 1978 191

Cultural Differences 192

War is over… this is no time to party - 1919 192

Dirty details - 1926 195

The dawn of film censorship - 1928 197

Brought to book in the desert - 1942 200

Pressing the off button - 1952 202

By Royal Disappointment - 1954 203

The horror, the horror - 1954 205

Skirting the issue - 1968 211

TV dinners - 1974 212

Not in front of the children - 1976 216

Changing channels - 1978 222

Hurrah for women! (just not that one) - 1978 224

Doing it for the kids - 1982 227

Honoured Guests 230

Permission to lunch - 1956 230

Cutting a rug - 1961 231

First Lady - 1970 232

Murdoch he wrote - 1976 238

That nice Mr Mubarak - 1979 240

Chair envy - 1979 241

Savile's travels - 1982 243

Eternal Outsiders 246

Breaking up is so very hard to do - 1924 246

And I did not speak out because… - 1938 250

Blackening their names - 1951 253

Let's not talk about the queers - 1954 257

Not all in the same boat - 1979 259

Home Front 262

A fair cop? - 1922 262

You just can't get the staff- 1942 264

Fly Attlee Air - 1946 266

Get a move on - 1951 267

Hear, hear - 1952 270

Ford: by appointment to the Prime Minister - 1955 275

Crossing the Line ? 1956 276

That Harold Macmillan, he knows how to throw a party- 1963 278

The Heathmobile - 1970 280

The Ironing Lady - 1979 284

Acknowledgements 287

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