Friday, September 16, 2011

Picture Enoch Powell Laughing, If You Can


The first paragraph of the Enoch Powell biography that arrived in my mailbox last week is:
The truth about any controversial contemporary politician is many-sided. Particularly about Enoch Powell, whose provocative ideas and buttoned-up personality have attracted apocryphal stories as readily as Britain once attracted Commonwealth immigrants.
The book was published a full two years after the "Rivers of Blood" speech, so it can't have been out of ignorance that the author wrote a lede that says, essentially, "Enoch Powell attracts criticism like Britain attracts immigrants." Personally, I think it's hilarious. But I wonder if Enoch ever had second thoughts about his decision to cooperate with this particular biographer.

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