Not an Englishman - Tapa dura

Between June and November 1992 Lord Goodman and David Selbourne met on some two dozen occasions in Oxford and London, and conducted the conversations of which this book is the record. Under skilful questioning which frequently take an unexpected turn - and which drew him into equally unexpected judgments - Lord Goodman delivers himself upon a wide range of subjects. They include an exploration of the elusive nature of Jewishness, the virtues of friendship, the use and abuse of money, and defects of the medical profession. Lord Goodman discloses to Selbourne the nature of his political and moral beliefs, his views upon Germany and the Germans, his attitudes to women - pungently expressed - and his revulsion at the conduct of much of today's media. Whether on the subject of good food or bad judges, English distaste for the arts or the chimera of 'Europe', Lord Goodman is by turns witty, wry and profound. Taken together, these conversations provide a multi-faceted view of a remarkable man at the age of eighty; eminent lawyer, bon vivant, sagacious counselor to the great and the good, liberal benefactor of the arts and much-loved Pooh Bah - or Grand Vizier, as Selbourne describes him - of English life. There also emerges here the portrait, sensitively drawn, of a diffident private individual consoled by his friendships and given to intense speculation about the ways of the world. A book full of the enjoyments which the nearly-lost art of formal conversation brings, it provides the reader with an insight into the ethical character of one of the greatest Englishmen, who, in this surprising series of discussions, denies several times being an Englishman at all.

David Selbourne's books include: The Making of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Against Socialist Illusion, Death of the Dark Hero: Eastern Europe, 1987-90 and, most recently, The Spirit of the Age.