26/5/2008

Ffion Hague, Cardiff-born wife of former Tory leader William Hague, explores the scandalous love life of Lloyd Gorge in a new book out next month.

She says her tale of his his intertwined relationships contains many mysteries and a few unsolved intrigues. He was cited in two divorce cases, was rumoured to have fought a duel over a woman in Argentina, and persuaded the prettiest girl in Criccieth to be his wife.

"Lloyd George's life was indeed a perpetual conflict," says the blurb for Hague's book, The Pain and the Privilege: The Women in Lloyd George's Life.

"He was a habitual womaniser and despite his early, enduring attachment to Margaret Owen, marriage did not curb his behaviour. There were many private scandals in a life devoted to public duty. Ffion Hague illuminates his complex attitude to women. Her own interest stems from the many parallels in her own life."

Ffion Hague says: "Woman's function is to pour oil on the wounds - to heal the bruises of spirit! and to stimulate to renewed exertion."

Ffion Hague, native Welsh- speaker, studied English Literature at Oxford and then took an MPhil in Eighteenth Century Welsh poetry at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

After graduating a second time, Ffion joined the Civil Service and was posted to the Welsh Office. She held a number of policy positions before being appointed Private Secretary to the Secretary of State. On leaving the Civil Service, she became Director of Operations at the business-facing charity, Arts & Business. In 2000, she became a headhunter and since 2003, has been a director of Hanson & Green. Ffion was a trustee of The British Council and also a judge of the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2000. She is married to William Hague and lives in Yorkshire.