Emma Wagstaff

The made and the found: essays, prose and poetry in honour of Michael Sheringham

Opposite the title page of The Made and the Found: Essays, Prose and Poetry in Honour of Michael Sheringham, the painting Micky Sheringham, by Bill Smock, is reproduced in black and white. It depic...

Arc-en-ciel. Études sur divers poètes

Kohl as the twin faces of European leadership (475ff.) was a brave attempt to disguise the fact that Berlin was about to start calling the tune and that France was destined only to fall in behind. Short also makes much of his being the man who really modernised France, but this is doing scant justice to Giscard and even Pompidou. The book’s major strength is, however, not so much its historical/political analysis (sound though this is) as its portrayal of a complex man enjoying power and outsmarting his rivals; the pages devoted to Chirac and Rocard are particularly tasty. Many who write about Mitterrand tend to see him as quite unique, or at any rate not something you might find outside France. Yet, looking across what one might term the space of broadly progressive politics in Europe, there are leaders who appear disturbingly similar. David Lloyd George and Charles Haughey, to take just two examples from the Anglophone world, were both strong individualists with unshakeable conviction in their own destiny. These two Rastignacs from the periphery came to the big city to win, and did so, after numerous defeats and epic battles, mostly with their own side. Both were unfussy about where the money came from, so long as it was there when needed; both were masters of flexible conjugal arrangements. Neither had huge principles beyond dislike of undeserved privilege; both were consummate intriguers and networkers. In both cases, their record in office was probably some way behind their rhetoric. Perhaps the real lesson from this important and enjoyable book is that massive ego can take you a long way in politics but the end result is usually disappointing. Pol Pot and Mao would no doubt disagree.