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To the Reform Club last night for the launch of Charles Williams' new biography of Harold Macmillan.

Mr Williams, who was once a banker and is one of Labour's industry spokesmen in the Lords, has crafted a new career as a biographer - of de Gaulle, Petain, Sir Don Bradman and now his first British subject.

And I had to buy his book, as I am trying to buy a copy of every biography of every prime minister ever published - about 1,000 volumes in all, I reckon!

Poor Lord Irvine, the former lord chancellor, spent £25 on a copy of the book, only to put it aside on a shelf and then find someone had stolen it - in the Reform Club of all places!

So much for crime falling under New Labour.

I was approached at the reception by Aurelia Young, wife of Sir George Young, one of the candidates for Speaker of the Commons (and daughter of the sculptor Oscar Nemon).

She said it was terribly unfair that her husband was being pilloried as an Old Etonian, when he could hardly help what school he went to.

And Lady Young pointed out that she and her husband had sent all four of their children to comprehensive schools, though she did confess that one of them had later gone to a private school.
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