In many ways changing from socialist to conservative makes no difference at all to one’s way of living. The general public—or at least that small portion of it which reads my books—is profoundly incurious about authors’ politics.
Quite certainly—though I don’t care to go into the details of my personal finances—the change hasn’t made me any richer. No grateful capitalists have sent me gold cufflinks and boxes of cigars as tokens of their esteem, the doors of Society have not swung open for me. I have been offered no directorships or safe Tory seats. I never seriously expected or desired any of these things; but it’s part of socialist mythology that upon those whom they call renegades glittering gifts are invariably heaped.
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