JOHN & EDWINA: A LOVE TORY: They kissed with longing .. there was

EDWINA Currie's steamy novel about sex in the Houses of Parliament was based on her own secret affair with John Major.

The former MP admitted at the time that the book, A Parliamentary Affair, was inspired by real people.

But until now nobody knew that she had written about her romps with married Major, who was to go on to be Prime Minister.

The parallels between the two principal characters of her novel, which sold over 250,000 copies, are in retrospect easily identifiable.

The heroine, Elaine Stalker, is a bright-eyed Tory new girl who falls for silver-haired party whip Roger Dickson and treats him to some exotic sex.

Edwina gave Elaine all her own character traits but changed the colour of her hair. Dickson, meanwhile, was clearly based on Major.

Yesterday as Edwina, 56, revealed her four-year affair in her newly-published diary, she pleaded that she didn't want to hurt Major or Norma.

But nine years ago when the novel was first published, she wasn't so sparing of his feelings.

She revealed that the first thing she did when she got it back from the printers was present Major with an autographed copy.

She said then: "After a while, I asked him how he was getting on. 'Oh,' he said, 'It's very good. Norma and I are reading it in bed, and we're fighting over it'."

She even claimed to have asked him later if he had finished it: "He said rather glumly that he hadn't. I thought he might just have been too busy, but he said that no, it wasn't that - Norma's mother had taken it."

She explained that she had invited Major to the launch party - "So if he wants he can have one (copy of the book) then. Ha, ha."

Edwina has now revealed that she and Major were, as she delicately puts it, "at it" from 1984 to 1988 while she was a backbencher and he was a Government whip.

Yesterday Major, who Edwina portrays as a charming Machiavelli, admitted he was more ashamed by the affair than anything in his life.

Edwina, who was married herself at the time, admits that she seduced Major.

The novel reveals their first sexual encounter when married Dickson leads Elaine to his flat near Conservative Central Office in Smith Square.

He informs her that his wife and children are out. She says she is disappointed because she wanted to meet them.

The couple chat over a drink and when they sit down she starts to seduce him by stroking his knee.

Edwina writes that at a later encounter:

"There was no stopping now, he groaned and whispered her name. The carpet under her knees rubbed and chaffed and her thigh muscles ached and still he kissed her with great longing, eyes closed, not daring to know what she was doing.

"The physical position she had put herself in, kneeling upright between his legs, reversing the traditional male female roles.

"He sat back, breathing huskily, stroking her hair. 'My god! I don't believe this...are...you all right.'

"Her voice was not under control, this was not quite what she had expected but he was not to know.

"The chance had presented itself and she had seized it boldly. 'I think I could do with another whisky.'"

The sex scenes are incredibly detailed. Judging by the raunchiest sex scene in the book, Major has more of a liking for soft fruit than the frozen peas for which he was so famously lampooned.

Edwina writes that Elaine had previously been to the market where she bought two punnets of strawberries and a can of aerosol cream.

He arrives and gropes her breasts in the kitchen before going upstairs.

"She leaned backwards and picked up a punnet of strawberries and the can of cream.

"Shouldn't those wait," he said.

"No," she said firmly and placed the first strawberry in his navel and the next two in the small hollow of his almost hairless chest, and the biggest in his mouth so he could not protest and had to chew or choke.

"Suppressing laughter, she then took the can, shook it, and spread mounds of whipped cream over the strawberries. She shoved another large strawberry determinedly in his mouth. Then balanced the smallest fruit gently on the very penis tip where it wobbled dangerously.

"After a thoughtful pause she then covered this last one with a whirl of cream and sat back to survey her handiwork.

"'Oh my God,'" he moaned ecstatically "I don't believe this."

Edwina's reputaton for being outspoken about sex began when she went on TV in the 1980s to demonstrate how to put on a condom. She also caused raised eyebrows in The Commons when she told businessmen: "Don't smoke or screw around. The best thing to take abroad to avoid Aids is the wife.

She has always been outspoken about her love of sex. She once said: "You just wake up in the morning and feel like it."

And she has described sex as God's gift to humankind, saying: "If we weren't meant to enjoy sex He wouldn't have given us the dangly bits that get us turned on."

She also confessed that she loved fruit - especially strawberries: "The thing about a strawberry is you can balance one on the end of your, well you know."

She added: "And I always say that if you make love to someone and you don't kill yourself laughing at the end of it, then it hasn't been good sex."

Now her affair with Major has been revealed, the parallels between the fictional Stalker and Dickson and Edwina and Major are there for all to see.

Edwina first became famous in 1981 when she waved a pair of handcuffs at the Tory conference. Married with two daughters, in 1983 she became MP for Derbyshire South.

Stalker first appeared on the national stage with a big speech at a Conservative conference. She was a new MP with a flair for self- publicity, married with one daughter.

Major was born in 1943 and went to grammar school before starting a banking career. He became an MP in 1979 and spent 1983-85 in the whips' office. He was appointed to the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 1987 and was PM for seven years from 1990.

Dickson is aged 40, the same age as Major would have been just before the start of his affair with Edwina.

He joined the City after secondary school, then worked his way through the junior ranks of Parliament. He became a whip at the age of 38 and was promoted to Lord Commisioner of the Treasury (Chief Whip) in 1992, two years later. Major also served in junior posts before he was eventually appointed - aged 39 - as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 1987.

Copyright 2002 MGN LTD
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.