Nick Clegg: The Biography by Chris Bowers (Twickenham & Richmond Liberal Democrats)

Nick Clegg: The Biography by Chris Bowers

August 18, 2011 3:53 PM

clegg • [Aug 12] CHRIS BOWERS writes: . . . IT was while at Westminster that Clegg went on an exchange visit to Munich in 1983. He was housed with the family of a judge, whose hobby was collecting rare cacti. Richard Stokes, who taught Clegg German, recalls being rung up by the judge late one night.'Nick in his unwisdom had, after drinking a fair bit, gone into the greenhouse, got out his lighter and singed the cactus "beards" of around five of the cacti, obviously not realising that these were priceless samples,' he says. 'The judge was incandescent. Nick was anguished and very ashamed.' Stokes and the judge decided to make him atone with community service. He was banished to a courtyard in a Munich community centre and told to dig over the flower beds in scorching summer heat . .

Did Marcel detect any signs that his friend would one day be a politician? 'I think there was something bubbling away there. But I thought, when he was 19, that he might become an actor,' he says. 'He was good enough, but he was too arrogant to realise how tough it is. Acting's not a profession like others - there's so much luck involved.'

Clegg says a political career never even crossed his mind until his Tory boss, Leon Brittan, broached the subject. 'I remember him saying to me, "You've got a very strong set of views, so why don't you think about going into politics?" I don't want to be melodramatic about this, but it hit me with a sense of "Oh, right". Until then, I'd look at politicians on television and think they were a different species of people.' Perhaps. But it might be more accurate to say that Nick Clegg is a different species of politician.

• Nick Clegg: The Biography by Chris Bowers, published by Biteback at £18.99.

• Daily Mail extract

• Review by Mark Pack [Lib Dem Voice Aug 20]