Lord Lexden, the official Conservative Party historian, was a guest at a dinner party held on 10 June to celebrate the 80th birthday of Richard Shannon, an old friend who is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Swansea. The dinner at the Athenaeum Club in London was preceded by drinks in the Club's garden.
Professor Shannon is the author of two of the six volumes on the history of the Conservative Party published by Longman: The Age of Disraeli 1868-1881-The Rise of Tory Democracy (1992) and The Age of Salisbury 1881-1902-Unionism and Empire (1996). He is also the author of the leading modern biography of Gladstone, published in two volumes. Lord Lexden's birthday gift was a contemporary medallion of Gladstone inscribed with the words: ' Friend of the People and the Franchise'.