Duty and pleasure in happy tandem

I have never met the 2nd Earl Jellicoe. I wish I had because to shake hands with this remarkable man, the Achilles of the title, would be to shake hands with honour, courage and duty fulfilled. If the author has him right it would also be to shake hands with wisdom, fun and a whiff of the piratical.

It is almost certainly a disadvantage to enter the world as the son of a nationally revered father, but this account of George Jellicoe’s life to date proves that famous men can indeed beget men famous in their turn. Three hedonistic but purposeful years in the company of the upper echelons of British and European society, and at Cambridge, formed a prelude to war. Jellicoe’s war, mostly in the SAS and SBS, could hardly have been more out of the ordinary, exciting or, for the reader, stirring. His is an enviable record of behind-the-lines action against the King’s enemies, epitomised by winning a DSO as a 24-year-old lieutenant — a rare distinction indeed for one so junior.

All this takes up roughly half the book. The second half is devoted to a well-handled review of a no less admirable record of 60 years of public service as a diplomat, politician and businessman, much respected and liked by all from royalty to ministry driver. We are reminded that reform of the House of Lords, pensions for public servants and Iraq are not new questions. In each of these Jellicoe played a distinguished part three decades and more ago; it would have been instructive to learn what he thinks about the latest imbroglio in the Garden of Eden. His Achilles’ heel — women — is gradually and sensitively exposed, culminating in the chapter dealing with his profoundly honourable resignation from Heath’s government.