Interested in art, I became an early collector of Cézanne’s work. Self-taught in French and German, these skills were useful in future roles. Later, I also picked up Turkish, Arabic and Persian.
It was sometime before I tended towards politics, my early focus was arts and language and given the times I naturally had a military career. While my maiden speech was controversial, I took a more considered approach to speeches over the rest of my career.
After a series of procedures to address health issues ended with complications, I was reliant on daily drugs including stimulants. Some have felt that this impacted on my ability to make sound decisions in times of crisis.
As with the current person in my role, I considered my country great but because of a crisis realised it was not.
On route to New Zealand in early 1957 I swam in the ship’s pool first thing in the morning where I met the CO’s mother who has always been a fan of an early morning dip.
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