Ted Heath: Sailing past the cynics

Evening Standard | 14 Jul 1990

Edward Heath is known for being pompous and aloof, a bad loser, having an under-active thyroid, sailing, and conducting boats and orchestras respectively.

Could he, in fact, be sensitive, gentle, reflective and shy; a man who uses his intellect as an armour against public expression of feeling?

“People used to say ‘We must do something about your image’. They never got to that point,” he says, in the voice of a tape recorder whose batteries are running low, “because I said, ‘I don’t believe in images – you should be yourself’.” And to the best of his ability, he is.

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