Author Archives: Olly Kendall

So many fond memories of Charles, but one in particular stands out. It was 2004 and we were travelling together to the Welsh Lib Dem conference where he was due to give the set-piece address – he’d been given a 15 minute slot and his speech was to be broadcast live on Welsh TV.

Anna Werrin, his formidable adviser, who has also sadly since passed away, charged me with the task of writing some speaker notes with Charles on the train journey there since a speech had yet to be drafted. I cannot think why that was, but my abiding memory of his brilliant and engaging speech writer Greg Simpson was that he never had enough hours in the day to write all the speeches Charles delivered, so that probably explains it. At any rate the responsibility for having something scribbled down for Charles fell to me. I of course obliged, and was told in no uncertain terms to keep the office updated on the progress of the speech. I was not going to drop the ball on this one.

Aboard the train, as was the case then, we hunted out the smoking carriage. Charles sparked up the first of many of Silk Cut Silvers and I dare say it was accompanied by an equally insipid Diet Coke (his other great tipple. Really). I suggested, after a time, that we might scribble down some notes for him – after all Anna, I quivered, has insisted we jot down something. In fact it was not uncommon for those of us with Charles to be given these kind of instructions and it was always made clear it was not worth our lives not to push back. Charles suggested some lunch first. And so we ordered, lunch came and went, and then again I tried to cajole him into thinking about this speech. Again, no. By this time a call or two came from London, ‘Any update?’ I fudged ‘yep, few bits down, getting there’ and so on.