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By Sam Macrory - 16th February 2011
Jim Callaghan’s government teetered from one night to the next. Sick peoplewere brought in to vote and the activities of the whips were crucial. I sawsome very fine and worthy whips, but also some pretty underhand ones
Lord Dobbs on the inspiration for Francis Urquhart
Lord Dobbs may be best known for creating fictional prime minister Francis Urquhart, but he had a front row seat for much of Margaret Thatcher’s government.
When he was eight years old, Michael Dobbs had decided that one day he would like to be a Member of Parliament. At some point in his mid-20s, as a young man working for the Conservative Party, that ambition faded. Instead, Dobbs’ career began to move in a very different direction.
Nearly a quarter of a century on, however, he has made it into the Palace of Westminster. Lord Dobbs, as he became last December, has returned to politics. “I knew I would regret never having been on those green benches, but there are lots of things I regret not having the time to do,” he recalls over tea in the House of Lords. “Being here is something I didn’t really expect, but it seems to have tied up some loose ends.” Dobbs, of course, made his name as the author of
House of Cards, his tale of a prime ministerial career ended by a ruthless chief whip. Despite being televised in the week that Margaret Thatcher left Downing Street, the story seemed scarcely credible on its publication in 1989 – but since joining the Upper House, Dobbs has already witnessed some sights that might have come from its pages.
“Elderly peers sleeping on camp-beds? I mean, please!” he chuckles. “I always say this and it’s true: to write political fiction you need to take reality and water it down – otherwise you wouldn’t believe it.”
“I’m not quite sure where that came from,” Dobbs admits, when asked who inspired Urquhart. “I didn’t discuss anything with anyone. I wrote it very quickly and I never expected it to get to where it did. But it changed my life.”
By that point, however, Dobbs’ life had already taken some unlikely turns. He grew up in what was then semi-rural Enfield – “Everything was green behind my house, but it’s changed completely now” – where his mother was a hairdresser and his father was “a policeman, before moving into the brewing trade”.
Dobbs Senior was also a local councillor, leaving the Conservative Party to become an independent candidate determined to “destroy” his Tory rival. It sounds like a useful inspiration for a would-be writer. “I’ve always found local politics far more violent than national politics. You’re dealing with your next-door neighbour: passions run high. I’ve seen hammers taken into counts and had buckets of water thrown over me.”
At Oxford, Dobbs was “apparently” a member of the Conservative Association, despite never attending. He also “shared” a girlfriend with a young Bill Clinton. “She didn’t tell me that at the time, but I think she was probably having a much more interesting relationship with him,” Dobbs recalls with a smile.
It was another romance, however, that shaped his next move. “I had fallen completely in love with an American girl who I had met at Oxford, so I became a graduate student in America, as that was the way to follow her. The relationship didn’t come to fulfilment – but we’re still in touch.”
His studies may have been a side-project, but Dobbs managed to complete two MAs and a PhD before returning to England for family reasons. Before long, he had stumbled on the next stage of his career. “I was in a pub – all my career changes have happened over alcohol – when somebody mentioned the Conservative Research Department. I soon found out that I was in the middle of a job interview.”
Over a decade with the party followed, with Dobbs working as a speechwriter, chief-of-staff, and an adviser to both Norman Tebbit, who he continues to admire, and Mrs Thatcher. “Most of the time it was a privilege to be there, even if at times it was a rather painful job,” he recalls of Thatcher. “I stayed with her right up to the moment she became prime minister – I was the first person to tell her that she had won the election – but I never found it easy to be in her company. In the end, we sort of fell out.” That sounds like an understatement, with Dobbs “banned” from Chequers during the 1987 general election campaign. “As I understand it, Mrs Thatcher had come to the conclusion that I was actively plotting against her. Absolute nonsense. It was exceedingly unpleasant and messy.”
But the messiness had an upside, as Dobbs’ experiences pushed his career in yet another direction. “On Wobbly Thursday, the week before the election, everything hit the fan. I had never seen Mrs Thatcher like this, and as we left the meeting Willie Whitelaw, her deputy, said: ‘There is a woman who will never fight another election.’I thought it was a comment of stunning stupidity, but after the election I began to think about what Willie had said.”
Dobbs realised that Whitelaw was right. “All the things that became public later on, we were seeing then. Willie was wise enough to see that process. That led me to write House of Cards, which is essentially about a plot to get rid of a prime minister. So it was all because of Maggie.” By this stage, Dobbs had given up on his own political aspirations. “At the age of 27 I think I could have walked into most safe Tory seats,” he admits. “But I didn’t want it any more. My heart wasn’t in it.”
Instead, five years later, he began writing. “It was huge fun to write – though I haven’t read it since it was published – so I thought I might write some more. However, I quickly discovered that writing is immensely demanding.” A turning point was reached, and Dobbs quit his job with Saatchi and Saatchi. He has been writing ever since, briefly returning to the political fold to serve as deputy chairman under John Major. “I was very proud to work for him,” Dobbs recalls. “It was inevitable – and right – that we lost, but if we were going to lose then we should lose with dignity.”
Dobbs then quit politics altogether, with his attentions focused closer to home. “I had to rebuild my personal life,” he explains. “I became a single father and had two kids to take care of. They were the priority. The other side was almost completely irrelevant.”
He now has 17 books to his name, with a new tale just published – “this one is set in modern-day Trieste, and although the lead character is a politician, the story is not about politics”. And with his personal life “sorted out” and professional life as a writer “going well”, the peerage has come at the right time. He has already identified the areas he wants to focus on.
A vigorous opponent of the Iraq war, Dobbs is adamant that “we shouldn’t go through the same nightmare again – we need a much clearer understanding of when intervention like that is advisable”.
He is also determined to help “win the peace back home”. The cultural, racial and political divisions caused by both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars trouble him, and Dobbs believes that by “standing up and spelling out the virtues of being British and the British way of doing things”, the divides can be healed. Nor is he put off by the reactions – both “distorted and ghastly” – to David Cameron’s recent speech on multiculturalism. “That is what makes it all the more essential to stand up and say it all over again.”
His first few weeks in the Upper House have been rocky, with Dobbs last week voting against the government on an amendment to the controversial voting system bill. “Although the House of Lords is a very important part of my life, it was just another change in my life,” he insists. “I have two children in education, so this is not my priority.”
But I wonder, given his regret at missing out on the green benches, whether Dobbs might one day be interested in acquiring that ministerial title? He says not, replying: “I have no ambitions other than to enjoy this place, contribute in a small way and not to take it over.” I’m sure he doesn’t, but then Michael Dobbs’ career has taken so many unlikely turns already, that at this stage it would be foolish to rule anything out.
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