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A driven man

The first time I saw Britain's future Prime Minister was more than 40 years ago, writes Tom Brown, on a dark, wet, windy night in Kirkcaldy when the spring tides poured over the seawall and flooded the low-lying homes in the Linktown district. The Rev John E Brown and his schoolboy sons - including one called Gordon - were among those who came to the aid of the poor families in this slum district of the town.

Memories of the events of that night are hazy, but the impression they left is still clear. The Brown family's actions then were typical of the way they lived their lives - a living sermon of values-in-action.

I owed the Rev John a personal debt of gratitude because, as a hapless cub reporter sent to cover Kirkcaldy Presbytery, after a weary day he would take the time patiently to explain the arcane deliberations of the ministers and elders. I would later come to regard his second son as a friend, and I was there to witness some of the defining moments in Gordon Brown's adult life. In the search for insights into what shaped our next Prime Minister, the Brown family manse in Kirkcaldy is a good place to start ...

Full story at Scotland on Sunday.