Former Foreign Secretary Lord Owen to speak at Gibunco Gibraltar

LORD OWEN, now aged 78, has accepted an invitation to speak at the Gibunco International Literary Festival which runs from October 20 to 23 to talk about his latest book Speaking for England: The Hidden Agenda of May 1940, which examines a crucial period during the Second World War when in the face of almost certain defeat to Germany, Winston Churchill’s determination to fight on changed the course of history. 

David Owen, as he was then known, served as British Foreign Secretary in the Labour Government from 1977 to 1979 and was one of the youngest people to hold that post in the 20th century. Then in 1981, he was one of the ‘Gang of Four,’ a moderate faction of the Labour Party who quit the organisation to create the Social Democratic Party (SDP), after the election of leftist Michael Foot as new party leader.

Disillusioned with the merger of the SDP with the Liberal Party, he continued to try to promote policies of social democracy but eventually ended up in the House of Lords where he sits as an independent Social Democrat and will no doubt also have opinions of Gibraltar and the future after Brexit.

Also announced as taking part in the festival will be Anna Bogie, author of the acclaimed illustrated children’s picture book series about animals, Happy Hooves published in 2014 which was conceived when she lived in a rustic farmhouse in Tarifa which had the most amazing far-reaching views of rolling hills and the ocean. Anna now resides in Gibraltar with her husband and two young children.