Strewth! 'Dragonlady' a surprise hit in Oz

Published on Sunday 9 October 2005 01:08

BACK home, she is either Stalin's Granny or the Dragonlady - and those are just the publishable nicknames.

But Helen Liddell, the combative, bouffant-haired, novel-writing former Secretary of State for Scotland, has at last found a nation, albeit 10,500 miles away, prepared to take her to its heart.

Australia, famed for its love of plain-speaking, no-nonsense types, has decided that High Commissioner Liddell is "refreshingly ribald" and "a delight". The feelings are reciprocated: Liddell likes her new home so much she has decided to refurbish her official residence at her own expense and is preparing to get the family dog from quarantine.

Liddell, who became High Commissioner for Australia in July, has already taken over as the new darling of the Canberra diplomatic set, having won an admiring Antipodean audience with her unconventional style.

Profilers have been delighted to discover her colourful past, and in particular her infamous debut novel Elite, in which the heroine is a leggy redhead who becomes Secretary of State for Scotland. Unsurprisingly, Liddell has been dubbed "the bodice-ripping diplomat".

In a series of speeches and briefings to Australian journalists, Liddell has revealed her clear delight at no longer having to suffer the brickbats of British political life, telling one recent audience that her former career was like "catching bullets in my teeth".

Her arrival in the four-year long post was initially overshadowed by the bombings in London, but she has gradually made her mark on the country.

The Liddell family have arrived en-masse in Canberra, including her 85-year old father. Liddell is paying for a refit of her Canberra grace-and-favour home to help him live there.

She has already thrown herself energetically into letting the wider country know of her presence, and letting it be known she intends to do things differently from her predecessor, Sir Alastair Goodlad - a diplomat more in the classic mould.

Liddell has pointed out she "didn't always drive around in a Jaguar with a flag on it". "I'm not from conventional Foreign Office stock," she told one interviewer, pointing out that she regularly used to travel on the Tube when in London.

Liddell's 'ordinary' credentials have been further bolstered by sightings of her at her local supermarket: highly unusual behaviour for someone occupying such a prestigious office.

Then there has been her take on 'that' novel, written in 1990 and long the subject of hilarity in Westminster political circles.

At a recent briefing for journalists, she explained that Elite "was written with great amusement with four of my girlfriends and a bottle of wine".

"It's the best way to get waiter service in a restaurant, discussing sex scenes with four girlfriends," she added.

At a speech at her residence in Canberra, she declared how she and her husband had wanted to be a "10 Pom" - the name given to Britons lured to Australia in the 1950s and 1960s through immigration inducements.

On a trip as Secretary of State for Scotland, she said she decided that Australia was the place for her.

"I went to see the Prime Minister in the January and said I'd like to quit at the next reshuffle," Liddell said.

Tony Blair offered her the Australian job. "I thought that it is the end of my political career," she joked.

In return, it appears that Australia has fallen in love. "What a delight she is," gushes columnist Lyn Mills of the Canberra Times, while The Age in Melbourne described her as "refreshingly ribald".

The reception is a far cry from back home, where Liddell's reputation has taken a battering in recent years.

Much of the scorn poured her way dates back to her closeness to the late Robert Maxwell in the late 1980s, when she was an executive in his media empire and her stormy time as Scottish Secretary.

All those concerns are now consigned to history. One Australian, who asked not to be named, undiplomatically commented: "We are so used to these stiff upper lip Brits, but she is a bit like the Irish president who has a bit of character. Not like the other creeps."

However, one former Westminster colleague was not so generous. "She can stay as long as she likes, or maybe move to New Zealand, so she's even further away."