Sue Crewe
I Should Be So Lucky
Keeper of the Gate: Behind the Scenes in the Reagan White House
By Selwa 'Lucky' Roosevelt
Quartet Books 383pp £15.99
If they thought about it all, most people would assume that a Chief of Protocol is someone who determines the mise à places at state banquets and keeps visiting dignitaries from sitting on their hats; a Mikadoesque figure performing a necessary but faintly absurd function. It’s surprising therefore to discover that the author of Keeper of the Gate – Chief of Protocol of the United States of America from March 1982 to January 1989 – was a woman of considerable power in the Reagan administration. This memoir describes the odyssey of an exotic-looking Arab girl from Tennessee to a position of influence in the White House.
Accorded the rank of Ambassador with a staff of sixty, ‘Lucky’ Roosevelt reported directly to the President, and her responsibilities included planning and executing state visits by world leaders and representing her government on all matters to do with accrediting diplomats and granting diplomatic immunity. Admittedly her department was also
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
When @djbduncan notices the text for a literary jigsaw puzzle had been written by a former colleague, his head spins. A wild surmise. Are jigsaws REF-able?
Dennis Duncan - The W Factor
Dennis Duncan: The W Factor
literaryreview.co.uk
In an effort to scold drinkers, Victorian temperance societies furiously marked every drinking establishment with a red X on city maps. It was a spectacular case of propaganda backfiring.
@foxtosser explores the history of drink maps
Edward Brooke-Hitching - From Beer Street to Gin Lane
Edward Brooke-Hitching: From Beer Street to Gin Lane - Drink Maps in Victorian Britain by Kris Butler
literaryreview.co.uk
How did a workers’ insurance agent who died of tuberculosis at the age of forty become a global literary icon?
@MortenHoiJensen on Kafka's metamorphosis
Morten Høi Jensen - Paranoid Humanoid
Morten Høi Jensen: Paranoid Humanoid - Metamorphoses: In Search of Franz Kafka by Karolina Watroba; Kafka: Making o...
literaryreview.co.uk