OXFORDSHIRECHARACTER ‘I hope I’ll get to know Oxfordshire as well as I did when I was drinking it dry as a young undergraduate’ He was the last Governor of Hong Kong, holds a hatful of positions and appointments and runs a frenetic diary that would break a less energetic man. Sandra Fraser met the 159th Chancellor of Oxford University,the Rt Hon Lord Patten of Barnes CH… Photography by Mark Fairhurst OXFORDSHIRECHARACTER HRIS Patten, or CP as he has been summers I had a pretty good feel for the best United States and fetched up working in a signing himself during our email pubs in the county,” he says, with a twinkle political campaign and the adrenalin, the Cexchanges – he arranged this in his eye. buzz, the smell of the grease-paint…” appointment himself – is either tired or He finds Oxfordshire beautiful and classes His daughter Alice is an actor and he feels bored or both, I think, as I shake hands with Oxford as one of the great cities of the that a life on the stage requires courage. But him – he doesn’t appear too pleased to see world, no small compliment given his isn’t it akin to his own life in politics? I ask. me as he ushers me into a side room in the international lifestyle and experience. Since Standing on stage in the glare of the Vice-Chancellor’s offices in Wellington the beginning of September he has been to cameras, waiting for election results only to Square, Oxford. the States twice, visited India, Spain, find you’ve lost? It’s impersonal, it’s sparse and his laptop Greece, Italy, The Gulf and probably He admits that was a painful experience case sits on a chair beside him, the airline elsewhere if he could only remember. but he escaped becoming Chancellor of the check-in tag still attached. He has a stack of Modern travel is comfortable but this in turn Exchequer and instead 12 years of Blackwell’s bags beside him on a table and masks the true toll such an international interesting jobs followed, during which he looks more jowly in the flesh than his schedule extracts, he says. has dealt with the toughest negotiators, photographs allow, which he later “My main home is in London and I also Vladimir Putin among them, “Somebody volunteers is the result of his love of good have a house in France, but we bought a flat once said ‘You can take the man out of the food, too much time in the air and too little in north Oxford in the Woodstock Road so KGB but you can’t take the KGB out of the exercise. we have a base here. I like being here for a man’,” he says. “I think there’s more than a “I used to play tennis every morning in weekend, being able to walk over to Port sliver of truth in that.” Hong Kong,” he tells me ruefully. Meadow, being able to walk to the shops in He was chairman of the independent Approached discreetly to be nominated as Summertown, shopping in the covered commission on policing for Northern Chancellor of Oxford University he asked market, Blackwells,” he nods to the stack of Ireland set up as part of the Good Friday for time to think about the role’s books at his side, “just the whole buzz of Peace Agreement, was European implications. He considered his relative the place. But I hope I’ll get to know the Commissioner in Brussels and took his seat youth an invitation to be very active and county as well as I did when I was drinking in the House of Lords in 2005. Last year he once chosen, Oxford University it dry as a young undergraduate.” was appointed Co-Chair of the UK-India Chancellors retain the post until death (or He’s lightening up and is tickled pink Round Table. the loss of their marbles, as Chris puts it), so when I tell him Simon Hoggart recently So what would he like to see happen agreeing represented a big commitment – remarked that he has the most genuine laugh during his time as Oxford’s Chancellor? and it meant an election. Who can forget in politics. Suddenly the laconic Chris “I’d like Oxford to still be one of the best the pain on his face when, Chris Patten, Patten has gone, he later apologises for universities in the world. I’d like it if people Tory Chairman, lost his Parliamentary seat seeming disinterested, he has been talking all said it was the best in the world, not the in 1992, despite being, in many people’s day and he’s dry-throated rather than tired – second best to Harvard. I’d like to look back eyes, the architect of the party’s return to and he wants to get home to his wife to hugely successful fundraising to increase Government? He wanted to know his Lavender and two of his daughters in our endowments so we can pay people nomination would gain support – which London so he can see his grandchildren. better and increase the size of bursaries for came from the highest echelons, as it turned Chris retains an interest in politics – Rab poorer students and I’d hope that Oxford out. Butler and Edward Boyle were his political was an exciting place, great museum, great “At that stage I let my name go forward heroes – but it’s foreign policy that fires him music and great research and a unique and the primary reason I did so was because up and he has been outspoken about Iraq learning experience in the world.” it’s such a wonderful and prestigious thing to and Iran and has strong views about Surely, in the light of his experience, do – it’s a great world-class university, I’m Palestine, Israel, the European Union and gaining support and extracting money for interested in higher education and thought Russia. the university must be a breeze? He leans back in his chair, regards me “My main home is in London and I also have a house in with his deep blue eyes and puts his hands behind his head. France, but we bought a flat in north Oxford in the “I think anybody who has been involved with real politics, when they observe Woodstock Road so we have a base here. I like being here university politics, feels like a herbivore looking at carnivores,” he says wryly. for a weekend...” Chris Patten Then seconds later, he’s out of the door, having his photograph taken beside the that I could help the university, not least “I guess I’m still interested in political something to be published in future. He had, at the time, a heated relationship finite; that there would become a point in portraits of his predecessors, Roy Jenkins fundraising internationally,” he says. debate, and I’m passionately interested as an He shrugs off criticism of his approach to with the People’s Republic of China and my life when I stopped acquiring new and Harold Macmillan, greeting and being The lack of executive responsibility can be individual in what’s happening in Asia, in Hong Kong’s handover – notably his remains critical of its human rights record, friends. But you don’t – and I acquire new greeted by passers-by in the front foyer, a frustration, but on the plus side, the job is India and China,” he says, seriously. detractors were retired diplomats, but he he says, but that doesn’t stop him being a enthusiasms,” he says. Gardening, reading dangling his brown suede shoes over the step an honour and involves meeting clever, He switches back into a more relaxed feels, 10 years on, Hong Kong has worked friend of the nation and he has been invited Chinese history and literature, Indian- as he sits. Then he’s gone, leaving a void and remarkable people, he points out. mode, still thinking about that ‘genuine out very well. He counts his time and job to speak there. written novels, he reels off a list of names of the wish you’d had more time with him. It’s “I can’t think of a better or more laugh’ remark. there as the best of his life, so much so, his “It’s ridiculous to suppose you can only novelists he enjoys. not only his laugh that is genuine. ■ interesting pro bono job to be doing,” he “I’m not sure that I laugh in order to composure almost cracked as he left on the have a reasonable relationship with people if It wasn’t his dream to become an MP, says. deflect criticism or arguments. I usually Royal Yacht Britannia, accompanied by you agree with whatever they have to say… much less to hold the Chancellor’s post. He Chris Patten has already enjoyed one laugh because I think an awful lot of life is Lavender, their three daughters, Kate, Laura that foreign policy is about being nice to was offered a job as a BBC graduate Oxfordshire Life and this is his second. As an extremely funny,” he says. He started and Alice (who sobbed as they left the foreigners.” traineeship – “They were like gold-dust so To read more Oxfordshire undergraduate at Balliol he played for a writing a diary after a particularly hilarious former colony) and Prince Charles. He has discovered throughout life that he people were surprised when I turned it characters visit the cricket team called the Eccentrics.