Patrick Cosgrave

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Patrick Cosgrave
Born
Patrick John Francis Cosgrave

(1941-09-28)28 September 1941
Dublin, Ireland
Died16 September 2001(2001-09-16) (aged 59)
London, England
Nationality
  • British
  • Irish
Occupations
  • Journalist
  • writer

Patrick John Francis Cosgrave

British Conservative Party, he was an adviser to Margaret Thatcher whilst she was Leader of the Opposition
.

Early life and education

Patrick Cosgrave was the only child of an improvident builder,

Lawrence of Arabia.[4]

At

Observer Mace debate,[2] and was elected auditor of the Literary and Historical Society in spite of his unpopular pro-British views.[3]

At

Cambridge University.[2] His supervisor was Herbert Butterfield, whom he later described as "the greatest influence on my life I can define".[6] He was among the Peterhouse alumni nicknamed "the reactionary chic" by the New Statesman.[6]

Career

Having freelanced for

Ted Heath's leadership were influential in effecting the change to Margaret Thatcher,[1][5] and earned him the nickname "The Mekon".[1]

When Thatcher first saw him speaking on television, she reportedly dismissed him as a "typical upper-class public school twit", to his obvious delight.[6] In 1975, he became her advisor while she was Leader of the Opposition.[2][6] He seemed on the path to a safe seat in Parliament, and ultimately a cabinet post.[6] However, Thatcher dropped him after winning power in the 1979 general election,[2] by which time his heavy drinking was impairing his reliability.[1][3] Private Eye suggested Thatcher dropped him because he had vomited on her in a taxi,[1] though the story is disputed.[3]

Subsequently, he was briefly editor-in-chief of Tiny Rowland's Lonrho publications.[2] He had first attracted Rowland's attention in 1973 after criticising in The Spectator Ted Heath's calling Lonrho "the unacceptable face of capitalism".[7][8] After this, Cosgrave earned a precarious living as a freelance journalist and by writing books, mainly political biographies.[3] Among other publications, he wrote for The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Irish Times, The Irish Press, the Literary Review, Encounter, the New Law Journal, and Le Point.[5]

Books

Cosgrave's first book was a review of the poetry of Robert Lowell.[9] Martin Seymour-Smith derided the book, but Lowell agreed with Cosgrave's criticism of "Mr Edwards and the Spider", and dedicated a rewritten version to him.[9]

His 1978 biography of Margaret Thatcher was faulted for hero worship;[3] George Gale called it "not much above a hagiography".[1] His biography of Enoch Powell, whom he also admired, was made with access to Powell and his correspondence,[1] and was the work of which he was most proud.[2] He completed only the first volume of a planned two-volume study of Winston Churchill during World War II.[10]

He published three

mystery novels featuring the daring Colonel Allen Cheyney.[11]

Personal life

He obtained a British passport[2] and sometimes attended services of the Church of England, while remaining agnostic.[2][5] In contrast to his public image as a vigorous polemicist, he was considered kind and courteous in private.[1][3][5]

He married three times and divorced twice.[1][3] His first marriage in 1965 was to Ruth Dudley Edwards, a fellow student at UCD and, later, Cambridge.[6][12] He married Norma Green, mother of his daughter Rebecca, in 1974; and Shirley Ward, his widow, in 1981;[1][3] she was secretary of the European Democrats at the European Parliament.[4]

He had financial problems from the late 1970s and when Green left him in 1980, Rebecca was made a

ward of court.[13] In 1981 the Inland Revenue filed a tax demand for over £10,000 and he was declared bankrupt.[13] His debt of £18,700 was discharged in 1985.[13]

He died of heart failure.[4] His poor health was exacerbated by heavy drinking and smoking.[2][3]

Works

Books

  • The Public Poetry of
    ISBN 0-575-00539-4
    .
  • ISBN 0-00-211184-5
    .
  • Cheyney's Law. London: Macmillan. 1977.
    ISBN 0-333-21635-0
    . (novel)
  • ISBN 0-09-131380-5
    .
  • The Three Colonels. London: Macmillan. 1979.
    ISBN 0-333-25941-6
    . (novel)
  • ISBN 0-7043-2258-7
    .
  • Adventure of State. Bolton: Ross Anderson Publications. 1984.
    ISBN 0-86360-016-6
    . (novel)
  • Thatcher: The First Term. London: Bodley Head. 1985.
    ISBN 0-370-30602-3
    .
  • ISBN 0-460-04691-8
    .
  • The Lives of
    ISBN 0-370-30871-9
    .
  • The Strange Death of Socialist Britain: post-war British politics. London: Constable. 1992.
    ISBN 0-09-471430-4
    .

Papers

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Obituary: Patrick Cosgrave". The Daily Telegraph. London. 22 November 2001. Retrieved 19 April 2009.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Obituary: First rate brain that loved to provoke". The Irish Times. 22 September 2001. p. 16. Retrieved 19 April 2009.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m
    Dudley-Edwards, Ruth (18 September 2001). "Obituary: Patrick Cosgrave". The Independent. Archived from the original
    on 22 May 2010. Retrieved 19 April 2009.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Fanning, Ronan (23 September 2001). "Northsider who was, briefly, Tory insider". Sunday Independent. p. 74.
  5. ^ a b c d e Pearce, Edward (17 September 2001). "Patrick Cosgrave: English-loving Irish journalist who blasted Edward Heath". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 April 2009.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Crowley, Jeananne (28 January 1978). "Patrick Cosgrave: Immigrant Chic". The Irish Times. p. 9. Retrieved 24 April 2009.
  7. ^ Morrissey, James (15 June 1980). "Patrick Cosgrave: from Finglas to British newspaper chief". Sunday Independent. p. 11.
  8. ^ Cosgrave, Patrick (7 August 1998). "Obituary: Tiny Rowland". The Independent. p. 7.
  9. ^ a b Cosgrave, Patrick (24 September 1977). "Robert Lowell". The Spectator (239): 26.
    reprinted in Lowell, Robert (1988). Jeffrey Meyers (ed.). Robert Lowell, interviews and memoirs.
    ISBN 0-472-10089-0
    .
  10. ^ Rasor, Eugene L. (2000). Winston S. Churchill, 1874-1965: a comprehensive historiography and annotated bibliography. Greenwood. p. 388.
    ISBN 0-313-30546-3
    .
  11. ^ Gorman, Edward; Martin Harry Greenberg (2002). The world's finest mystery and crime stories (third annual ed.). Forge. p. 37.
    ISBN 0-7653-0235-7
    .
  12. ^ Dudley Edwards, Ruth (4 November 2007). "It is the mischief and laughter that I'll miss most about Tony". Irish Independent. Retrieved 24 April 2009.
  13. ^ a b c "Bankrupt granted discharge by court". The Irish Times. 13 March 1985. p. 8. Retrieved 20 April 2009.
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