More than 40 friends and admirers joined Conrad Black at Robin Birley’s club 5 Hertford Street last night for the launch of his memoir.
There was no sign of his wife Barbara Amiel but among the former press baron’s cheerleaders were Condé Nast managing director Nick Coleridge , the Queen Mother’s biographer William Shawcross, former Sunday Telegraph editor Dominic Lawson and his wife Rosa Monckton (pictured on Black’s arm), AA Gill and Nicola Formby (top right), Jonathan Aitken (above right), Paul and Marigold Johnson, Rupert Hambro and Lord Weidenfeld. Bookseller Heywood Hill erected a stand and did a brisk trade. Unaccustomed as he is to not speaking, Conrad didn’t make a speech. “It was just like the old parties except that Conrad looked younger,” said William Cash, editor-in-chief of Spear’s. “Prison has been good for his health.”
