Afternoon Light - Some Memories of Men and Events: Sir Robert Menzies

Menzies was Prime Minister of Australia from 1939-41 and 1949-66. This is a collection of reminiscent essays about Baldwin, Chamberlain, Atlee, DeValera, Roosevelt, Truman, JFK, and more lengthily about his friends Felix Frankfurter and Dean Acheson, as well as his hero Churchill. He reviews his participation in the Suez Committee of 1956 and upholds Eden's action. Menzies seems to take himself less seriously than most statesmen in that he has an evident sense of humor. He was virtually obsessed with retaining Australia's whites-only immigration policy, and opposed intervention from any quarter in Rhodesian and South African affairs because it would be a dangerous precedent. His 1960 correspondence with Verwoerd on such topics is included. The other essays - on the virtues of the monarchy, the British form of government, and cricket, are frankly Old Boyish.