SWINTON, The Earl of, in collaboration with James Margach. Sixty Years of Power: Some Memories of the Men Who Wielded It. London: Hutchinson, 1966.
First edition, first impression. Original red cloth with gilt spine lettering on a black title panel, in the publisher’s dust jacket, priced 35s net. From the personal collection of Air Chief Marshal Lord Portal, with his ownership inscription “Portal of Hungerford” to the front free endpaper, and with the West Ashling House, Chichester stamp beneath.
A compelling association copy. Swinton, formerly Philip Cunliffe-Lister, was Secretary of State for Air from 1935 to 1938, during the vital pre-war period of RAF expansion and rearmament. Portal, later Chief of the Air Staff, became one of the central architects of British air strategy during the Second World War. Their careers meet at one of the most important points in modern British history: the political creation of air power and its wartime command.
The book itself surveys many of the statesmen who shaped Britain across six decades, including Baldwin, Chamberlain, Churchill, Attlee, Macmillan and Douglas-Home. Portal knew many of these figures not as distant political names, but as colleagues, ministers and strategic decision-makers. Swinton’s memoir is concerned with the exercise of power at cabinet level, while Portal’s career embodied the military application of that power in wartime. This copy therefore links three layers of authority: Swinton the political insider, Portal the wartime air commander, and the prime ministers whose decisions formed the world they both served.
Very good condition. Binding firm and clean, with light handling only. Dust jacket very good, lightly toned and rubbed, with small chips and short closed tears to the upper edge.
