As Time Goes by: Memoirs of a Writer by Koch, Howard (1979) HCDJ VERY GOOD

Concluding what has become recognized as one of the most significant and revealing political works of the century, volume three of the Crossman Diaries examines the eventful, difficult years 1968-1970, when the Labour Government rules precariously, despite a luxurious majority of 64. Eventually, as one set-back after another confronts an administration that is running out of steam, Crossman and Barbara Castle plead with the Prime Minister to confide in his Cabinet friends instead of resorting to hole-in-the-corner discussion of national issues with a 'squalid' kitchen coterie at No. 10.These years see Richard Crossman back in harness as a departmental minister. The introduction of a complex pension scheme and the reorganization of the National Health Service are now his main concern, but his vision is far from narrow. The crushing of the 'Prague Spring', the dawn of the Nixon Presidency, international explosions of university unrest, the dangerous Middle Eastern stalemate – all these p