He did it his way: in an interview in May Sir Edward Heath, who died this week, told Frederick Mocatta that he had no regrets.(Interview)

Publication: Spectator

Publication Date: 23-JUL-05

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COPYRIGHT 2005 The Spectator Ltd. (UK)

In January, as the then schoolboy editor of the Eton College Chronicle, I wrote to Sir Edward Heath to ask him for an interview for my school magazine. A few days later, a typed letter from Sir Edward arrived through my letterbox. He was flattered, he wrote, to have been asked, and would be delighted to meet me, but he feared that such an interview, despite the Chronicle's limited readership, would attract undue and unwanted attention to him in the run-up to the general election. We agreed, therefore, to meet in May.

His secretary, when I rang her, told me he was ill. His mobility was poor, but 'his mind is sharp as a new razor'. She warned me, 'You can initially have 15 minutes with him. If it goes well, you may have longer--but to be honest I'd be surprised if you can get much out of him at the moment.' The day before our scheduled meeting I rang Heath's private telephone line, as he had asked me to, to check whether he was still up to seeing me. His deep booming voice, slow and grating slightly, surprised me as it came down the line: 'I'd be delighted to see you still, Mr Mocatta. I knew many people from your school and it is a pleasure to find someone so interested in affairs political.'

I walked up to the gate of 59 The Close, Salisbury--Arundell's, as it is known. It is a beautiful Georgian house, built in greying stone, facing the tallest cathedral spire in England. In the low sunlight of the early evening of...

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