Conservatives Abroad Majorca mid-summer dinner

Lord Hurd accompanied by his co-author Edward Young, told the Bulletin a little of his life after politics. “These days I do a mix of things; none of them at all important. “I potter about in the House of Lords and the main thing I'm doing is writing a book with Ed. “He and I worked together on Choose Your Weapons, which has just come out in paperback, the hardback came out last year. “Before that he helped me on my other book Peel and since we work well together we decided to do another book, so we're going to do one about Disraeli.” Q.— So there's no retirement on the horizon at all?
A. — “No, my mother-in-law is always saying when are you going to retire, but I don't quite know what that means.” Lord Hurd says that promoting his book Choose your Weapons about British foreign policy was fun,. “We did a round of visiting literary festivals including Hay on Wye.” Q.—Do you find the book tours a pleasurable experience?
A. — “Yes I do, I really rather enjoy it, it's like fighting an election campaign without any hecklers… without any opposition, everyone is being really nice. Some people actually come up afterwards and buy the book.” Lord Hurd tells how he began writing many years ago and has published, four or five novels, “some of them with a partner as with Ed.” Q.—How does that work for you?
A. — “Alright, I have to be very humble because Ed is very bossy; he has very high standards and very good judgement.” Ed interjects: “I'm tough, but we tend to agree quite a lot on what we need to do then it's a question of implementation. I'm co-author of Choose, and the new one, Disraeli. I graduated from being research assistant on Peel to being co-author on Choose. “Disraeli was easier to research than the last book because it's about one man, one set of archives which are in Oxford, so actually it was quite easy whereas the other was very complicated because you were dealing with lots of different individuals and had papers scattered all over the place .” Q.— Will the Disraeli book be quite a tome?
A. — “No, not a tome, quite short, brisk and something you could read on the plane to Majorca!” Q.— Speaking of which, is this your first time on the island Lord Hurd?
A. — “I have been here several times, but not for many years…I also came here on my honeymoon in the sixties and stayed in Formentor, there was a great storm in the night and a great wave swept through the hotel and we spent most of the day cleaning up.” Ed says that his parents also spent their honeymoon here. “They came here in 1971, I've never been before, this is my first trip so I've to go and report back to my parents that it's still beautiful.
Q.— What is next on their agenda?
A. — “We're going on to the mainland, half way between Madrid and Lisbon to an old friend of mine and we're going to do some work. Ed's slightly dominant and he sets his target, but it will be real a break…a change of scenery, so the inspiration will flow.” Before they embark on the next leg of their Iberian idyll there's the business of delivering the after dinner speech to Majorca's Conservative's Abroad, Lord Hurd heads for the terrace to meet the island's Tory faithful.