The bookshelves in these David Cameron photos are a “spot the difference” puzzle
David Cameron is doing the rounds of any media outlets that might help him sell his autobiography, For the Record, and this means we’ll be seeing a lot of shots of him trying to pose in a serious and statesmanlike way, such as in this photo from The Times at the weekend.
It’s very much the kind of image we’d expect of a man hawking a political autobiography, but eagle-eyed journalist Anita Singh noticed something about how his bookshelf had changed since this other photo was taken. See if you can spot the difference.
And a closer look.
And closer still.
Because it’s not that easy to see, let’s take a look at Anita’s tweet.
If you're wondering why David Cameron's bottom shelf isn't quite full, it's because he hid the Hitler book before the photographer came round pic.twitter.com/fL3l5WTLOm
— Anita Singh (@anitathetweeter) September 14, 2019
It does look very much like he made sure the copy of a biography of Adolf Hitler by Ian Kershaw was somewhere out of shot when the photographer turned up. Here’s how Twitter reacted.
He didn't hide it. It was on loan from CCHQ library and Johnson had put a reservation in. https://t.co/yXgEG2Ab5B
— Tripe Marketing Board (@TripeUK) September 15, 2019
Seemingly he took this book to be an instruction manual rather than a warning from history
— Gary W (@fridaytime) September 15, 2019
Presumably he'll have his own chapter in the reprint of this. pic.twitter.com/QGqLNwYzSq
— Sean A (@SeanKDLA) September 14, 2019
The one person most likely to give us the inside scoop was keeping schtum.
Er, well as the photographer I can neither confirm nor deny
— Mark Harrison (@SnapperHarrison) September 14, 2019
Historian Greg Jenner had a characteristically sensible take on the matter.
Personally, I’d actually like my politicians to own & read books about Hitler etc, but there’s a strange internet culture of shaming people for having them, as if owning them were an endorsement of fascism. https://t.co/Mpo0vsnQZg
— Greg Jenner (@greg_jenner) September 15, 2019
To be more fair to the guy than he was to the country, this tweet by Matt Leys makes a really good point.
Wait a minute, are we all sneering at Cameron for moving a book because we'd all have sneered at him if he hadn't? https://t.co/4TDSUhZ7RV
— Matt Leys (@mattleys) September 15, 2019
Sounds like a fair cop.
Source: Twitter Image: Twitter, The Times, screengrab
