Over a decade before Margaret Thatcher swept to power, another
Englishwoman was running Britain from 10 Downing Street: Marcia
Williams was the first ever female political adviser to a Prime
Minister, and she was said to have a powerful grip on her boss.
Historian Ben Pimlott called the relationship between Marcia and
Prime Minister Harold Wilson 'the most famous and mysterious
partnership in modern political history'. Labour Home Secretary Roy
Jenkins said Marcia had the best brain and the highest courage of
all Wilson's advisers. But the young, ambitious men she worked with
believed she had the Prime Minister firmly in her control. They
said she humiliated him in public and screamed at him behind closed
doors. According to them, Wilson was terrified of Marcia and caved
in instantly to her eccentric demands. There were strong
suggestions that all this was the legacy of a passionate affair
when Harold met Marcia back in the '50s. 'Not so,' said Harold and
Marcia, and Harold's wife Mary agreed. There is no doubt Marcia was
outspoken, forthright and by the standards of the time deeply
unconventional. But her political skills were unmatched, and
certainly in the Wilson governments of the '60s she guided him to
success with a cool hand. This first ever biography of Marcia
Williams examines the accusations and assumptions that were a
constant accompaniment to her political career.
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