Please note: In order to keep Hive up to date and provide users with the best features, we are no longer able to fully support Internet Explorer. The site is still available to you, however some sections of the site may appear broken. We would encourage you to move to a more modern browser like Firefox, Edge or Chrome in order to experience the site fully.

Supporting your high street Find out how »
Roy Jenkins, Paperback / softback Book

Roy Jenkins Paperback / softback

Paperback / softback

Only a few left - usually despatched within 24 hours

Description

Shortlisted for the 2014 Samuel Johnson PrizeShortlisted for the 2014 Costa Biography AwardLonglisted for the 2015 Orwell PrizeWinner of the 2014 Political Book Awards Political Biography of the YearRoy Jenkins was probably the best Prime Minister Britain never had.

But though he never reached 10 Downing Street, he left a more enduring mark on British society than most of those who did.

As a radical Home Secretary in the 1960s he drove through the decriminalisation of homosexuality and the legalisation of abortion.

An early and consistent advocate of European unity, he played a decisive role in achieving British membership first of the Common Market and then of the European Union.

Then in 1981, when both the Conservative and Labour parties had moved sharply to the right and left respectively he founded the centrist Social Democratic Party (SDP) which ultimately paved the way for Tony Blair’s creation of New Labour.

On top of all this, Jenkins was a compulsive writer whose twenty-three books included best-selling biographies of Asquith, Gladstone and Churchill.

He was the embodiment of the liberal establishment with a genius for friendship who knew and cultivated everyone who mattered in the overlapping worlds of politics, literature, diplomacy and academia.

His biography is the story of an exceptionally well-filled and well-rounded life.

Information

Other Formats

Save 25%

£25.00

£18.69

Only a few left - usually despatched within 24 hours
Add to Basket
Sign in to add to wishlist
 
Free Home Delivery

on all orders

 
Pick up orders

from local bookshops

Information