A Time of Renewal: Clusters of Characters, C.P.Snow and Coups

Description

The author's departure from his beloved Fijian Service to become Bursar of Rugby School was heart-rending for him. However, a major factor in his decision was the chance to see more of his older brother, the novelist C.P. Snow. Philip himself was a character in three of his brother's novels and as his brother's reputation grew (not only as a novelist but also as a minister in Harold Wilson's government and later, in the House of Lords) new opportunities were opened to Philip. So his story reads like a social history from the 1950s onwards, since he found himself rubbing shoulders with eminent figures from a variety of fields - cricket, arts and letters, politics, the armed services, the law, academia and royalty.

Philip Snow, the youngest of four brothers (one of whom became Lord Snow of Leicester), was born and went to school in Leicester before going up to Cambridge. For 14 years he served in the Colonial Administrative Service as Magistrate and Provincial Commissioner; these were just two of a remarkable variety of posts including Receiver of Wrecks and Deputy Sheriff, in Fiji and the South Pacific. He captained the national Fiji cricket team on the first-class tour of New Zealand in N48. An elected Honorary Life member of the MCC, he was the doyen of the 30 members of the International Cricket Council, having served continuously as Permanent Representative of Fiji from 1965 until his retirement 30 years later. Appointed MBE in 1979 and promoted to OBE in 1985, he is retired in Sussex. Philip Snow maintains close contacts with the South Seas and was awarded the Fiji Independence Silver Jubilee Medal in 1995.