| Review of: |
The 20 British Prime Ministers of the 20th Century edited by Francis Beckett
Haus Publishing.
Pages: 160. £9.99 Britain's Prime Ministers by Roger Ellis, Geoffrey Treasure
Shepheard-Walwyn.
Pages: 300. £25 |
| Reviewed By: |
Dick Leonard |
| Reviewed in: |
The Political Quarterly |
| Date accepted online: |
14/01/2008 |
| Published in print: |
Volume 78, Issue 03, Pages 456-466 |
Book Reviews: Nineteen Men and One Woman
Anyone who sets out, as I did a few years ago, to inform himself systematically about all the Prime Ministers of the twentieth century, faces a hard task. Over the years, several hundred biographies have been written, but most are out of print, of purely ephemeral interest or invalidated by more recent research. Good-in some cases, great-biographies exist on nearly all the nineteen men and the one woman concerned, but it takes much effort to track them down, and in many cases they are available only in academic or copyright libraries.
Before discussing the new collection of short biographies produced by Haus Publishing, it may be helpful to readers to give a rundown of the most authoritative works on each of the Prime Ministers concerned, starting with the third Marquis of Salisbury. His daughter, Lady Gwendolen Cecil, contributed an extremely thorough and well-written account of her father's life in four volumes, published between 1921 and 1932, entitled The Life of Robert, Marquess of Salisbury. Unfortunately, it carried the story only up to 1892, missing more than half of the time he spent in 10 Downing Street. Until recent years the best full biography was Lord Salisbury 1830{1902: Portrait of a Statesman (1953) by A. L. Kennedy (not the novelist of the same name). A shorter work by Robert Taylor, Lord Salisbury (1975), is also well worth reading, but the definitive biography will almost certainly prove to be Salisbury: Victorian Titan (1999) by Andrew Roberts. A blockbuster of more than 900 pages, it is perhaps appropriate that the life of the ultimate High Tory should have been written by a High Tory historian. The work is, however, by no means uncritical, and none of Salisbury's foibles or failings are overlooked by the author, who made excellent use of his free access to the Salisbury archives at Hatfield House.
Nothing comparable has yet been attempted on Salisbury's nephew and successor, Arthur Balfour. The best of several more limited studies available are Arthur James Balfour (1963) by Kenneth Young, and Balfour: Intellectual Statesman (1985) by Ruddock F. Mackay. Only one biography of Campbell-Bannerman has appeared in the past eighty years, but it is excellent. CB: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1973) was written by John Wilson, a former diplomat and hereditary peer, who now sits on the Liberal Democrat benches in the Lords, as the second Baron Moran.
The best biography of Campbell-Bannerman's successor is still Roy Jenkins's Asquith (1964), which is marred only by the absence of a final chapter assessing the overall significance of Asquith's career. He was also prevented, by Asquith's daughter Violet, from making much use of the Liberal Prime Minister's astonishing and highly revealing letters to Lady Venetia Stanley, with whom he was infatuated, and which were finally published in 1982, edited by Michael and Eleanor Brock, as H. H. Asquith, Letters to Venetia Stanley. A shorter biography by Stephen Koss, Asquith (1976), is notably more critical than Jenkins, but gives a less well-rounded picture.
More books have been written about Lloyd George than about any other twentieth-century premier except perhaps Churchill. Head and shoulders above all the others are the four biographical volumes by John Grigg, published between 1973 and 2002-The Young Lloyd George, The People's Champion 1902{1911, From Peace to War 1912{1916 and War Leader 1916{1918. All four were republished by Penguin Books in 2002-3. Grigg did not live enough to write his fifth volume, but Lloyd George's postwar career is well covered in John Campbell's Lloyd George, The Goat in the Wilderness (1977). The best one-volume life of Lloyd George is Peter Rowland's David Lloyd George (1976).
On Bonar Law, the indispensable source has long been Robert Blake's The Unknown Prime Minister: The Life and Times of Andrew Bonar Law, 1858{1923. It is supplemented rather than superseded by a much more recent study-also of high quality-by the American scholar R. Q. J. Adams, entitled Bonar Law (1999). Stanley Baldwin was singularly ill served by his official biographer, G. M. Young, who produced a jejune and largely unsympathetic portrait in Stanley Baldwin (1952). Much more substantial is Baldwin (1969), by Keith Middlemas and John Barnes, while Roy Jenkins's Baldwin (1987) is an excellent short account. The best Baldwin biography is, however, the latest offering, Stanley Baldwin (1999), by Philip Williamson.
Several biographies of Ramsay MacDonald appeared in the 1930s and 1940s, vitriolic ones from the left, hagiographies from the right. All were superseded by David Marquand's official life, Ramsay MacDonald (1977), a brilliant work-possibly the best political biography written in Britain since 1945-which does equal justice to MacDonald's early achievements as Labour leader and his sad decline as Prime Minister during the 1930s. Written with access to MacDonald's unpublished diaries, it comes close (as close as anyone is ever likely to) to unravelling MacDonald's motivations in agreeing to head a 'National' government in 1931. A short biography, Ramsay MacDonald, by Austen Morgan, appeared in 1987, without seriously challenging Marquand's conclusions, though he himself somewhat modified them in his contribution to The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004).
Chamberlain had better luck than Baldwin in his official biographer, Keith Feiling, whose The Life of Neville Chamberlain (1946), though perhaps over-sympathetic to its subject, is still well worth reading. Of three later volumes, all entitled Neville Chamberlain, two-those by Iain MacLeod (1961) and H. Montgomery Hyde (1976)-add little of substance, but David Dutton (2001) has produced by far the best book yet to appear on the arch-appeaser.
An avalanche of books on Churchill continues to appear, of widely varying quality. The immensely long official biography, Winston S. Churchill, in eight volumes, two by Randolph S. Churchill and six by Martin Gilbert, appeared between 1966 and 1988, with-so far-16 huge companion volumes of documents. Of several good one-volume lives, Roy Jenkins's Churchill (2001) takes the palm, and is probably the best book that Jenkins ever wrote. Two other works should be mentioned. John Charmley's Churchill: The End of Glory (1993) is deeply flawed, but stands out for its consistently hostile approach. In contrast, Five Days in London: May 1940 (1999), by John Lukacs, is a short but magnificent account of Churchill in the week of Dunkirk, when he persuaded an initially hesitant War Cabinet of the need to fight on-a veritable tour de force.
Clement Attlee's official biography by Kenneth Harris, Attlee (1982), is reliable but somewhat stolid, and readers may find two subsequent and shorter works more accessible. They are Clement Attlee: A Political Biography (1985) by Trevor Burridge, and, in particular, Francis Beckett's Clem Attlee (2000). The definitive volume on the Attlee government is Peter Hennessy's Never Again: Britain 1945{51 (1992).
The first two serious biographies of Anthony Eden both appeared in 1986: Anthony Eden, by Robert Rhodes James, is a cautious defence; Anthony Eden: A Biography, by David Carlton, a fierce attack. Two more recent volumes, Anthony Eden: A Life and Reputation (1997), by David Dutton, and Eden (2003), by D. R. Thorpe, both attempt a more balanced approach.
Apart from his own self-serving memoirs, stretching to six fat volumes that nobody in his publishing house had the nerve to edit down, there has been only one serious full-length biography of Harold Macmillan-the official life, in two volumes by Alastair Horne-Macmillan (1988, 1989). It is extremely well done, and is unlikely to be improved upon.
Three biographies of Douglas-Home have so far appeared, of which the official life, Alec Douglas-Home (1996) by D. R. Thorpe, is undoubtedly the best, making good use of Home's private papers. Earlier books, with both of which Home collaborated, were John Dickie's The Uncommon Commoner: A Study of Sir Alec Douglas-Home (1964), and Kenneth Young's Sir Alec Douglas-Home (1970).
Harold Wilson was also the subject of three biographies-all of them fat and authoritative volumes-which followed in quick succession in 1992-3. The best informed of these was Ben Pimlott's Harold Wilson (1992), the most elegantly written, Philip Ziegler's Wilson (1993) and the most dispassionate, Austen Morgan's Harold Wilson (1993). If pressed to choose, I would narrowly award the palm to Pimlott. Edward Heath, who authored one of the better prime ministerial autobiographies, The Course of My Life (1998), has so far attracted only one biographer, John Campbell. Heath complained that his Edward Heath (1993) did not do him justice, but most reviewers at the time thought he had bent over backwards to be fair to him, and Campbell's work, like all his other political biographies (except perhaps for an early essay on Roy Jenkins), is careful, detailed and scholarly.
Apart from ephemeral 'campaign' biographies, and his own well-written memoirs, Time and Chance (1987), the only serious work so far on James Callaghan is the official biography by Kenneth O. Morgan, Callaghan: A Life (1997). Morgan, an exceptionally well informed observer of, and participant in, the Labour scene, has done him proud, and produced a detailed, clear and only slightly too sympathetic account of his life and career. The official life of his successor, Margaret Thatcher, has been entrusted to the former editor of The Daily Telegraph, Charles Moore, and is unlikely to see the light of day for many years. When it does come out, it will have to be good to rival (it is unlikely to surpass) the two major biographies that have already appeared. Hugo Young's One of Us: A Biography of Margaret Thatcher (1989, revised edition 1991) was a superb indictment, while John Campbell's two volumes provide an extraordinarily thorough and dispassionate account of her rise and fall. Published in 2001 and 2003, respectively, they are entitled Margaret Thatcher: Vol. I, The Grocer's Daughter and Margaret Thatcher, Vol. II, The Iron Lady.
The best book written so far about John Major is his own John Major: The Autobiography (1999), a modest, but basically trustworthy account, which sadly reveals him as a better author than Prime Minister. Anthony Seldon's Major: A Political Life (1997), written with Major's cooperation, detailed and well documented, complements this volume, but-having been written in the immediate aftermath of Major's election defeat-appeared too early to take a long view. Which brings us to Tony Blair, on whom some six biographies and several other books have already appeared. The earliest of these-by Jon Sopel (1995) and John Rentoul (1995, revised in 2001)-dealt mainly with his pre-prime ministerial career, as did the idiosyncratic and sharply critical work of Leo Abse (1996), though this was subsequently twice revised (in 2001 and 2003). In 2004, Philip Stephens published Tony Blair: The Making of a World Leader, intended primarily for an American audience, but the most judicious assessment of his premiership yet to appear. Much the most detailed and up-to-date biography, however, is Anthony Seldon's bulky Blair (2005), which is broadly sympathetic, but by no means uncritical. The Survivor: Tony Blair in Peace and War (2005), by Francis Beckett and David Hencke, a slighter volume, is more of a hatchet job.
The general conclusion that I would draw from this brief overview is that there is a clear need for an accessible series of short, up-to-date lives, which would act as introductions both to the general reader and to students of history and political science. This is what Haus Publishing has sought to provide. The general editor of the series, Francis Beckett, himself an experienced biographer, has spread his net wide in recruiting his authors, thirteen of whom are academics, five journalists and two politicians. Their individual approach varies, but the books, each of which is some 40,000 words long, fall into a general pattern, each including a generous provision of side-panels to explain subsidiary characters and significant events, a few well-selected illustrations and a chronology of each premiership, including not only the main political events, but social and cultural developments of the time. Few of the authors engaged in much primary research, with the notable exception of Ewen Green, who sadly died at an early age before the publication of his book on Balfour. But most of them have handled the secondary sources with skill, and have produced lively, well-argued texts.
Eric Midwinter gives the series a strong start, with an excellent survey of Salisbury. Perhaps inevitably, he is heavily dependent on Andrew Roberts's tome, but his grasp and understanding of the social and economic background is superior, and he has succeeded in presenting a convincing portrait of a complex personality, whose life was a world away from that of modern readers. The book is only slightly marred by a few trivial errors, such as locating the North Sea island of Heligoland in the Baltic, and attributing the famous quote about Iain MacLeod being 'too clever by half ' to the wrong Marquis of Salisbury.
Green's book on Balfour is probably the most original of the whole series. Though not a Conservative himself, he was the leading authority on early twentieth century Conservative thought, and his analysis of the swirling currents of Tory opinion during Balfour's leadership of his party is masterful. He concludes by suggesting that Balfour 'should never have been Prime Minister, and that his strengths really made him a natural and effective "second-in-command" or éminence grise'. Roy Hattersley shows his customary verve in arguing for greater recognition for Campbell-Bannerman, one of the lesser known Prime Ministers who, Hattersley asserts, was a 'genuine radical' and can claim at least as much credit for the beginnings of the welfare state as his two successors, Asquith and Lloyd George.
These two highly dissimilar characters were jointly responsible for splitting the Liberal party. The next two books in the series are authored by writers who eerily reflect the styles of their subjects. Stephens Bates writes with quiet reasonableness about Asquith, and Hugh Purcell with great flamboyance on Lloyd George. The four interwar Prime Ministers-Bonar Law, Stanley Baldwin, Ramsay MacDonald and Neville Chamberlain-are each covered competently, but without great originality, by Andrew Taylor, Anne Perkins, Kevin Morgan and Graham Macklin, respectively.
Chris Wrigley's Churchill is a masterpiece of concision, and a great pleasure to read, while David Howell's Attlee is also a first-class effort, and is particularly good on the development of Labour party policy during his twenty-year leadership. Peter Wilby's study of Anthony Eden is not without sympathy for its subject, but confirms the negative verdict reached by earlier writers.
Francis Beckett chose to write the Macmillan volume himself, and has done so with great gusto. He has little difficulty in persuading his readers that he was 'a decent and intelligent man with humane instincts'. His further claims, however, that Macmillan 'was a great statesman [and] a great Prime Minister' are less convincing. His unfortunate hand-picked successor, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, is written about by David Dutton, a distinguished biographer of two other Tory Prime ministers-Neville Chamberlain and Anthony Eden. He has great respect for the man, and argues that he was an above-average Foreign Secretary, but is unable to disguise the conviction that as Prime Minister he was just not up to the job.
Paul Routledge writes admiringly of Harold Wilson, while Labour MP Denis MacShane tackles Ted Heath, presumably because no Tory could be found to write dispassionately about him. James Callaghan is dealt with, perhaps rather too gently, by Harry Conroy, a former Labour press officer, while Clare Beckett attempts a feminist interpretation of Margaret Thatcher. Robert Taylor, a former labour correspondent turned academic, deals eminently fairly with John Major, while Mick Temple struggles manfully with the task of assessing Tony Blair before his premiership had run its full course. He views him as a great disappointment, and surmises that 'history will see Blair's legacy as consolidating Thatcherism'. Altogether, Haus Publishing has succeeded in producing a high-level product, which is likely to shape public perceptions of the twenty premiers for many years to come. The books vary in quality, but none of them falls below an acceptable level of competence and reliability.
Meanwhile, two 'public' school teachers, Roger Ellis and Geoffrey Treasure, have produced a well-written and handsomely illustrated tome, Britain's Prime Ministers, which includes very short essays on each of the fiftyone premiers from Walpole onwards. It may spark the curiosity of school pupils, who are presumably the intended readership, but with a mere three pages allocated to the likes of Campbell-Bannerman, it will not take them very far.
