Former Commonwealth Secretary-General Sir Don McKinnon was back at Marlborough House to launch In the Ring, his memoir of his years in office.
The Commonwealth is less of a priority for UK governments now, said Sir Don. He told how when the first Secretary-General left the PM gave a dinner in his honour, when the second left the PM gave a lunch. The third got lunch with the Foreign Secretary and when Sir Don quit, Gordon Brown gave him a cup of tea.
Sir Don wasn’t intending to write a book about his battles with Robert Mugabe and Pervez Musharraf until he was told someone else would write their own version of events.
“My hairdresser, Ola Jafar at Truefitt & Hill, introduced me to one of her clients, Lorne Forsyth of publisher Elliott and Thompson, and the rest is history,” said McKinnon. “Cutting our hair is not an arduous task these days but Ola is a very effective literary agent.”
