The Man from the Ministry
Apr. 1st, 2024 09:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiBook Review: Eggs or Anarchy, by William Sitwell
I had never heard of Fred Marquis, who ran the Lewis's department store chain before becoming Lord Woolton in 1939 and being appointed Minister of Food by Neville Chamberlain in April 1940. He continued in position when Churchill took over, although neither of them especially rated each other. Sitwell's biography gives a portrait of an interesting figure, focused on delivery and with no concern for bending rules or conventions when necessary, doing deals with third countries that would have raised eyebrows in normal circumstances. Much of the ministry itself was based in Colwyn Bay, to offer some protection from attack or invasion. The position was inevitably a regular target for the media, with wartime rationing and frequent supply problems, but Woolton understood the value of positive coverage and propaganda, and took every opportunity to get his messages across. Inevitably, there is a chapter on the Battle of the Atlantic; food shipping was a heavy casualty. Woolton also pursued a ruthless policy against the Black Market. His insistence that there was no such large scale market may be true, but there were many small scale instances, and sometimes officials employed a heavy-handed approach that got them into trouble. What interestingly emerges from this book (published in 2016) is, in fact, how much Churchill resembles Boris Johnson - wanting to be popular, shying away from difficult decisions, not sticking by his own rules, and so on. Woolton regularly berated Churchill for diverting shipping away from food use to military purposes, and had some success in negotiating more food capacity. Churchill moved Woolton in late 1943 to become Minister of Reconstruction, which is where the main thread of the book ends, although there is a discussion about the health of the nation during the period of rationing, and also some first-hand recollections with perspectives from shopkeepers of the period.
I had never heard of Fred Marquis, who ran the Lewis's department store chain before becoming Lord Woolton in 1939 and being appointed Minister of Food by Neville Chamberlain in April 1940. He continued in position when Churchill took over, although neither of them especially rated each other. Sitwell's biography gives a portrait of an interesting figure, focused on delivery and with no concern for bending rules or conventions when necessary, doing deals with third countries that would have raised eyebrows in normal circumstances. Much of the ministry itself was based in Colwyn Bay, to offer some protection from attack or invasion. The position was inevitably a regular target for the media, with wartime rationing and frequent supply problems, but Woolton understood the value of positive coverage and propaganda, and took every opportunity to get his messages across. Inevitably, there is a chapter on the Battle of the Atlantic; food shipping was a heavy casualty. Woolton also pursued a ruthless policy against the Black Market. His insistence that there was no such large scale market may be true, but there were many small scale instances, and sometimes officials employed a heavy-handed approach that got them into trouble. What interestingly emerges from this book (published in 2016) is, in fact, how much Churchill resembles Boris Johnson - wanting to be popular, shying away from difficult decisions, not sticking by his own rules, and so on. Woolton regularly berated Churchill for diverting shipping away from food use to military purposes, and had some success in negotiating more food capacity. Churchill moved Woolton in late 1943 to become Minister of Reconstruction, which is where the main thread of the book ends, although there is a discussion about the health of the nation during the period of rationing, and also some first-hand recollections with perspectives from shopkeepers of the period.