Breaking the Code Read Online Free Page B
Author: Gyles Brandreth
about half an hour we’d both run dry and he was getting restless, so up I got and off I toddled. He wished me luck and said if it went my way in the final round, he’d do whatever he could to help. I don’t know what was gained by the encounter, except he will have discovered I don’t have green skin and I own at least one sober suit as well as all those ghastly jumpers.
Tonight we had supper down the road with Peter and Sue. 77 They were funny and generous as ever, but I couldn’t concentrate at all on the conversation around me. All I could think about was Chester. I’ve not told any of our friends (or family, other than Michèle, not even the children) what I’m up to. If it happens they’ll know soon enough.
TUESDAY 12 MARCH 1991
Dear Gyles,
I am writing to confirm you are now down to the final three in our selection of a prospective candidate. The procedure for the final selection meetings will be as follows:
a) Thursday 14 March, Executive Council Meeting, 7.00 p.m. at Rowton Hall Hotel.
Each candidate after a brief social meeting with executive council members will be asked a few brief questions by the chairman, then asked to make a fifteen-minute presentation on how they are going to retain Chester at the next general election, followed by questions from members of the executive council. Once all three candidates have been presented a ballot will take place. If one candidate gets more than 50 per cent of the vote they may choose to forward only one candidate to the general meeting. If not, at least two candidates will be forwarded to the general meeting.b) Friday 15 March, General Association Meeting at Christleton Country Club, 7.00 p.m.
If more than one candidate is presented then the procedure will follow that of the executive council. If only one is presented then they will be asked to make a speech, answer questions and there will be a vote on a motion proposing them as the next prospective candidate.
At both meetings we would be delighted if your spouse could attend.
Yours sincerely,
Vanessa, Agent
SATURDAY 16 MARCH 1991
Well, if that wasn’t forty-eight hours that shook the world, it was certainly forty-eight hours that changed our lives.
On Wednesday night we went to St Paul’s to see
Nicholas Nickleby
with Saethryd 78 as The Infant Phenomenon. She was gorgeous. When she was on, I concentrated. The rest of the time, my head whirred with my speech, round and round it went, round and round. On Thursday (Michèle’s birthday, poor thing) we set off for Chester early and ensconced ourselves in ‘our’ room at the Grosvenor. (This is proving an expensive business.) At 6.45 p.m. we were at Rowton Hall Hotel, stomachs churning, smiles fixed. The other candidates appeared equally daunted: Sir Peter’s young man looked reassuringly unpromising, uncertain, ill-at-ease, but the woman looked – and was – formidable. She is called Jacqui Lait, 79 she’s been on the circuit for years, she clearly knows her stuff. Her husband was even larger than her, bear-like, genial, supportive. Sir Peter’s candidate didn’t appear to have a spouse – another nail in his coffin. Vanessa said to me right away, ‘Sorry, you can’t go last this time. They’re on to you. We’re drawing lots.’
For the first half-hour we sipped our orange juice and mingled. This we did (let’s face it) so much better than the others. Michèle was a star – smiling, laughing, gladhanding, moving down the aisles, not missing a single row. She looked the business. She did the business. At 7.30 the chairman called the room to order, the executive council took their seats (there must have been about eighty of them in all), and we, candidates and spouses, were escorted to a separate sitting-room on the other side of the hall. Thelocal papers were waiting to take our pictures. We each had to do a sad shot in case we lost and a happy shot in case we won.
The lots were drawn. I was second on. The speech went
Tonight we had supper down the road with Peter and Sue. 77 They were funny and generous as ever, but I couldn’t concentrate at all on the conversation around me. All I could think about was Chester. I’ve not told any of our friends (or family, other than Michèle, not even the children) what I’m up to. If it happens they’ll know soon enough.
TUESDAY 12 MARCH 1991
Dear Gyles,
I am writing to confirm you are now down to the final three in our selection of a prospective candidate. The procedure for the final selection meetings will be as follows:
a) Thursday 14 March, Executive Council Meeting, 7.00 p.m. at Rowton Hall Hotel.
Each candidate after a brief social meeting with executive council members will be asked a few brief questions by the chairman, then asked to make a fifteen-minute presentation on how they are going to retain Chester at the next general election, followed by questions from members of the executive council. Once all three candidates have been presented a ballot will take place. If one candidate gets more than 50 per cent of the vote they may choose to forward only one candidate to the general meeting. If not, at least two candidates will be forwarded to the general meeting.b) Friday 15 March, General Association Meeting at Christleton Country Club, 7.00 p.m.
If more than one candidate is presented then the procedure will follow that of the executive council. If only one is presented then they will be asked to make a speech, answer questions and there will be a vote on a motion proposing them as the next prospective candidate.
At both meetings we would be delighted if your spouse could attend.
Yours sincerely,
Vanessa, Agent
SATURDAY 16 MARCH 1991
Well, if that wasn’t forty-eight hours that shook the world, it was certainly forty-eight hours that changed our lives.
On Wednesday night we went to St Paul’s to see
Nicholas Nickleby
with Saethryd 78 as The Infant Phenomenon. She was gorgeous. When she was on, I concentrated. The rest of the time, my head whirred with my speech, round and round it went, round and round. On Thursday (Michèle’s birthday, poor thing) we set off for Chester early and ensconced ourselves in ‘our’ room at the Grosvenor. (This is proving an expensive business.) At 6.45 p.m. we were at Rowton Hall Hotel, stomachs churning, smiles fixed. The other candidates appeared equally daunted: Sir Peter’s young man looked reassuringly unpromising, uncertain, ill-at-ease, but the woman looked – and was – formidable. She is called Jacqui Lait, 79 she’s been on the circuit for years, she clearly knows her stuff. Her husband was even larger than her, bear-like, genial, supportive. Sir Peter’s candidate didn’t appear to have a spouse – another nail in his coffin. Vanessa said to me right away, ‘Sorry, you can’t go last this time. They’re on to you. We’re drawing lots.’
For the first half-hour we sipped our orange juice and mingled. This we did (let’s face it) so much better than the others. Michèle was a star – smiling, laughing, gladhanding, moving down the aisles, not missing a single row. She looked the business. She did the business. At 7.30 the chairman called the room to order, the executive council took their seats (there must have been about eighty of them in all), and we, candidates and spouses, were escorted to a separate sitting-room on the other side of the hall. Thelocal papers were waiting to take our pictures. We each had to do a sad shot in case we lost and a happy shot in case we won.
The lots were drawn. I was second on. The speech went
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