Geoffrey Booza-Pitt is a British politician who served as Foreign Secretary under Prime Minister Francis Urquhart. He is the Conservative MP for Hampshire Southeast, and was originally appointed to Urquhart's Cabinet as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He had an affair with fellow Cabinet member Betsy Bourke, and he was known for his promiscuity; the chairman of his local party even cited Booza-Pitt as the cause of his wife's infidelity during his divorce proceedings.
Booza-Pitt was also involved with inside trading, so he came to Urquhart for help. Urquhart had him write an undated resignation letter in order to ensure that Pitt was at his disposal, but he ultimately called the party chairman and gave him a knighthood in exchange for him cancelling his divorce, thereby saving Booza-Pitt from imprisonment. After Urquhart's cabinet reshuffle, Booza-Pitt would replace Tom Makepeace as Foreign Secretary.
History[]
Born Geoffrey Pitt to an alcoholic accountant father, the young Pitt often distanced himself from rumours about his father. His mother had regularly complained about her life to him, which caused Pitt to develop a severe disdain for spaces in a conversation as he associated it with the pauses she would take when complaining. When he was a schoolboy, his friends overheard gossip about his father at a local coffee shop and cornered him about it, to which Pitt invented an imaginary surname (Booza-Pitt) and South African ancestry to explain it away. After this, Pitt began regularly inventing things about his background and his achievements. At university he would contact several religious charities for help with tuition fees.
He first came to Parliament around 1995 at the same time as Claire Carlsen. At the time of The Final Cut he has become the youngest member of Francis Urquhart's Cabinet (mentioned at one stage as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster). He is something of a "character", cheerfully upper-class (hiding his background) with a slightly eccentric sense of humour, notable for wearing colourful waistcoats and bow ties. Urquhart promotes him to Foreign Secretary as an insult to the departing Tom Makepeace. He is an Urquhart loyalist, and in any case lacks the credibility to be a rival, and his popular image as an amiable buffoon humiliates his predecessor. He has a reputation as Urquhart's "glove-puppet" (as Tom Makepeace calls him in his statement of resignation) and is consequently nicknamed "Sooty" by both the Opposition and other Members of the Cabinet and Parliamentary Party.
Before his appointment, Booza-Pitt is forced to admit to an extra-marital affair by Urquhart and, while no action is taken immediately, is made to sign a corresponding statement of resignation which Urquhart keeps in his desk as leverage against him. When Urquhart's position becomes increasingly untenable during Makepeace's leadership challenge, Booza-Pitt attempts to resign on his own terms, hoping to create the perception that he is taking a principled stand against the prime minister, but is presumably disgraced when Urquhart publishes his earlier resignation letter instead.
Behind the Scenes[]
Personality[]
Booza-Pitt was a compulsive fantasist with an overactive imagination, which showed himself in his many stories about his background. Furthermore he was an opportunist who liked jumping at every possible advantage in life. This also manifested itself in a subtle love for attention, behaving like a showman. He was a notorious gossip in addition to having an excellent memory. Booza-Pitt in addition was a meticulous planner, enjoying organising things and spending months getting everything perfect. He was prone to getting into a sulk with last minute cancellations especially.
Booza-Pitt was also highly promiscuous, known for trying to seduce any woman he came across - in the novels it is believed he has successfully seduced half of the wives of the Cabinet. Despite this he found it stifling to emotionally connect with any lovers of his age or younger.
Due to his childhood, Booza-Pitt was a good talker with an unfortunate inability to listen to others. Furthermore, as a defence mechanism he rambled on when he was nervous in a situation.
Trivia[]
- The Booza-Pitt of the book is similar to the TV version in many respects. However, he is Transport Secretary to start with and later Home Secretary, and has an affair with his Party constituency Chairman's wife. His political career survives under Urquhart's successor, Maxwell Stanbrook. In the novels his constituency is named New Spalden.
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