Following the Upper Bann by-election in 1990 David Trimble became an MP. In this abbreviated extract from his book Trimble, Henry McDonald outlines his early days in the House of Commons.
Although he relished the cut and thrust of the Commons, Trimble did not hang out with fellow MPs and journalists in the members' bar. His extra-curricular activity at Westminster was confined to his membership of the all-party group on opera. Even in his first year he liked to leave Westminster and melt into the anonymity of London, where he did not want the kind of security protection that every MP is afforded in Northern Ireland. Barry White junior, his current parliamentary assistant, confesses that Trimble's wanderlust still worries his Westminster team: "When he comes over here he doesn't have his security minders with him, so he just likes to jump on the Tube and go and buy CDs. Or he'll head off to the bookshops. We don't like the way he walks down Oxford Street in his green mac with two plastic bags full of Elvis and opera CDs and books on Irish history. I suppose it's his way of relaxing . . ."
McDonald goes on to outline how in London he renewed his acquaintance with Ruth Dudley Edwards, who would often take him to the Reform Club for dinner.
Edwards described herself in that early period of their friendship as "the Virgin Mary interceding for people who wanted to meet David". Her intercessions included passing on an invitation to Trimble to have lunch at the Irish Embassy. However, he declined because he believed it would send out the wrong signal - that relations between Belfast and Dublin were normal despite the continued existence of the Anglo-Irish Agreement. He also knew that someone like Paisley would exploit such a visit to the full.
While he may have wined and dined with journalists and intellectuals outside Parliament, at all other times Trimble lived quite frugally in the capital. He bought a two-bedroom council flat across the Thames in the less than salubrious Elephant and Castle area, and usually travelled to the Commons by bus. Friends who came to stay with him noted the shambolic state of the flat, with papers and magazines scattered everywhere. One of his circle at Queen's University was David Brewster, who had been a student of his and a leading figure in the Young Unionists. Brewster visited Trimble at Westminster and was startled by the lack of security that he had opted for:
"At two or three in the morning he would leave the Commons and walk back to the flat. Here was this middle-aged, middle-class, specky geezer walking through some of the hardest areas in south London with a couple of bottles of wines banging together in his briefcase. He should have had a "Mug me" sign pinned to his back.
"When we got to the flats I thought he was living in very grotty conditions - there were dead rats on the balcony and piss all over the place. I remember thinking to myself on one occasion that it must be a miserable life".
Taken from Trimble by Henry McDonald, published by Bloomsbury next Monday: £16.99 in UK.