Exceeding My Brief Memoirs of a Disobedient Civil Servant
From the tragic massacre at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games to signing the Treaty of Rome when Britain entered the Common Market, Barbara Hosking was there.
This is the story of a Cornish scholarship girl with no contacts who ended up in the corridors of power serving two British Prime Ministers. It is also the very personal story of her struggle with her sexuality as a young woman in the 1950s, a time when being gay could mean social ostracism.
Between working on a copper mine in the African bush, serving as a press officer to Harold Wilson and Edward Heath, and pioneering British breakfast television, hers is a tale of breadth and bravery. At the age of ninety-two, Barbara Hosking reflects on her life and gives a compelling account of the innermost workings of politics and the media amid the turbulence of twentieth-century Britain.
Reviews
Barbara writes with warmth and enthusiasm about politics and women, and her book is full of her mischievous Cornish personality.
Baroness Boothroyd OM
A hit memoir. She is quite literally the trailblazer you’ve (probably) never heard of.
Daily Mail
Barbara Hosking wields a vivid pen sharpened by her keen eye for character, mood and episode. This is a memoir of true warmth and insight.
Peter Hennessy
If ever a girl picked herself up, dusted herself down and started all over again, it is Barbara Hosking. This book fulfils an ambition at the age of ninety-one. What a girl! It is a frank, fascinating and sometimes moving tale of her progress from nether Cornwall to serving two Prime Ministers, becoming a ministerial private secretary and then working to raise the standing of women in public life.
Sir Bernard Ingham
A remarkable life in the corridors of power.
BBC News
A rollicking career and storied life.
The Observer
[A] warm, funny and illuminating book that guides readers through one woman’s journey down the corridors of Whitehall and through a slowly changing society. She did so at a time when being a woman and, in Barbara’s case, a gay woman meant the path was strewn with obstacles. It is a tribute to her guts, her resilience and her charm that she has emerged triumphant.
Sue Cameron, Civil Service World
A remarkable tale, well told and often insightful. There don’t seem to be many Barbara Hoskings around anymore.
The National
A timely arrival on to the crowded political memoir market […]Hosking is probably the most influential woman you’ve never heard of.
The Tides of History
Share this book
Buy this book
not availablenot available
- eBook
- ISBN: 9781785903564
- 21 November 2017
- £6.99