Pinochet in Piccadilly

This is a fantastic read and don't be put off by the Maggie / Pinochet picture / title. I never realised that Britain and Chile are so inter-twined historially. Recommended to me by a friend who now lives in Santiago and fully recommended by me!

Andy Becketts book (which can be picked 2nd hand for a song here) is a very well written blend of genres - part travelouge, history, politics. Even this does not do justice to the book which includes interviews with participants of the events that unfold in the book who don't normally recieve much of a place in historical writing.The breadth of this work is impressive: Beckett charts the connections between Britain and Chile going back to the late 18th Century while telling the Story of Pinochets house arrest. The story of the Englishman who went to Chile in 1973 as a journalist supportive of the Allende government who ended up being imprisioned at the National Stadium is particularly moving. The connections between the British Right and Pinochet are put under the spotlight too - Alan Walters (Mrs Thatchers economic guru), various other people from her "entourage" such as the dubious Brian Crozier, Nicholas Ridley and bloody Margaret herself. He also examines those in Britain who seen in the Pinochet regime a template for Britain; the man himself was a great admirer of Thatcher, and especially with regards to how she dealt with the Miners Strike. The tentative moves on the right with regard to a coup in Britain during the 1970s are also covered in some detail.The campaign to have Pinochet released with its nauseating slogan - "The only political prisoner in Britain" - unofficially headed by Norman Lamont (yes - he of the singing in the bath while sterling goes down the plug hole fame) is enough to make you physically sick: the sheer chutzpah of their bleatings about poor old Pinochet when they must surely be aware of what happened to thousands of Chileans under his brutal regime.Its a melancholy book, but a necessary one and well worth reading.

Ibid

Great book, great quality.

Excellent book. Very readable. Gives a good background to Chile & how the UK changed when Thatcher came to power.