Beautiful Ambiguities: An Inside View of the Heart of Government

This book is a humorous, light-hearted memoir by a British civil servant who rose through the ranks to fulfill a variety of positions in the British bureaucracy--including Prime Minister Harold Wilson's Private Secretary. He was closely involved in the monumental political upheavals of the period, including the "Winter of Discontent." Often in the position of maintaining the delicate balance between confidentiality in the government and the public right to know, Cheminant provides anecdotal jewels illustrating this balance. Beautiful Ambiguities is an engaging account of the civil service at its highest levels.