Friends, I Want To Recommend ......

ROGUES, VILLAINS and ECCENTRICS (An A-Z of Roguish Britons Through The Ages) by WILLIAM DONALDSON This is a fantastic compilation of potted biographies of many of the most colourful British characters of the last couple of centuries. You will get the general flavour from the following extract from the entry for former Solicitor-General, Sir Nicholas Fairbairn : "......Sir Nicholas, who customarily wore clothes designed by himself, was considered by some to be a wit......When the junior health minister Edwina Currie was forced to resign after some incautious remarks about salmonella infection in eggs, Fairbairn suggested that "The Hon Lady should remember that she was an egg once, and very many members on all sides of the House may regret that it was ever fertilized" In the course of a debate at Edinburgh University he told a student that she was "a silly rude bitch, and since you are a breeder, God help the human race". ...certain sections of the House were greatly amused by these and other sallies. Sir Nicholas's wit could be savoured by the general public, thanks to the medium of the wireless. On Desert Island Discs he regretted that women MPs 'lack fragrance' and "they definitely aren't desert island material. They all look as though they are from the 5th Kiev Stalinist machine-gun parade". Throughout his career he subscribed to the theory that when a woman says 'no' she means 'yes'. He was appointed Solicitor-General for Scotland in 1979 but was dismissed in 1982 by Mrs Thatcher after he had decided not to prosecute in an alleged rape case". They don't make Law Officers like that anymore, do they kids?