Product Description

The authorised -- but not uncritical -- life of one of the great parliamentarians and orators of our times, the former Labour Party leader, now in his nineties, who is also an eminent man of letters. Michael Foot has been a controversial and charismatic figure in British public life, political and literary, for over sixty years. Emerging from a famous west-country Liberal dynasty, he rose as a crusading left-wing journalist in the late 1930s: 'The Guilty Men' (his book on the pre-war appeasers of Nazi Germany) is one of the great radical tracts of British history. He has been the voice of libertarian socialism in parliament, an international socialist and government minister, and was Labour leader for two-and-a-half years between 1980 and 1983. His political friendships with people like Beaverbrook, Cripps, Aneurin Bevan and Barbara Castle were passionate and profound, but he also had a remarkable and quite different career as a man of letters, with Dean Swift, Tom Paine, Hazlitt, Byron, Wordsworth, Heine, Wells and Silone amongst his heroes. Foot's two-volume life of Aneurin Bevan is a triumph of political biography. Kenneth Morgan's biography does full justice to both the public and the private side of Michael Foot -- no more tellingly than his descriptions of Foot's long and happy marriage to the filmmaker, feminist and writer Jill Craigie.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #308186 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Review
'I was engrossed. Kenneth Morgan's superb portrait quickly takes shape!This is much more than another Labour biography. It is a portrait in bright oils of a master parliamentary literary-politcal agitator, in a society congenitally hard to rouse.' Prospect 'A joy to read, erudite, wry, sensitive and enlightening, packed with juicy items!from nearly a century of tumultuous personal, party and national events.' History Today 'Magnificent biography!Morgan has given us a book that is everything an authorized biography should be. It's compendious meticulously researched with the collaboration of its subject, and contains every fact you are ever likely to want to know about him.' Guardian 'A substantial work of history, not shy to explore Foot's human frailties!Yet it is also affectionate, conveying the warmth of Foot's generosity of spirit and his passions.' Scotsman 'Beautifully written, and with facts and arguments skillfully assembled!a supremely honest scholar.' Financial Times 'Morgan's judgements of Foot are elegantly balanced!accurate narrative and careful analysis.' Roy Hattersley, The Observer 'A fascinating look at an unique public figure' Belfast Telegraph 'this refreshingly candid biography' Sunday Telegraph 'Morgan is one of Britain's most distinguished modern historians, whose books combine scrupulous scholarship with limpid prose! In his equally revisionist biography of Jim Callaghan, he managed, with a remarkable mixture of empathy and skill, to get inside the skin of that surprisingly complex and enigmatic figure. Now he has done the same with Foot -- another complex and enigmatic figure, but cut from a very different cloth! Morgan deals faithfully and fairly with Foot's political career.' New Statesman

The Observer
'Foot was, and still is, a great man who deservedly inspires
afffection as well as admiration.'

Financial Times
'A thoroughly professional piece of history, beautifully written
and with facts and arguments skillfully assembled...'

Customer Reviews

A groud breaking biography
This is a fascinating and well written insight into the life of Michael Foot where I learn't not just about Michael Foot the politician but also about Michael Foot the man and literary polymath. The best biography I've read in a long time.

Worthy historical study of Michael Foot's life and works
This is, on the whole, an interesting book by an established political historian and biographer (and Labour peer in the House of Lords). While many people are familiar with the scornful newspaper stereotypes of Foot from the early 1980s when he led the Labour Party, this biogaphy provides a detailed assessment of both his party political activities and his 'hinterland', especially his early years as a journalist and author (either writing columns for or editing, the Evening Standard and Tribune, amongst other publications, and his co-authored book, Guilty Men, written at the outbreak of World War Two)
It is, on the whole, sympathetic in tone, but is honest about Foot's noticeable illiteracy on matters of economic policy (which his political opponents gleefully exploited as a result of the commitments contained in the 1983 Labour General Election manifesto). While some readers may find the internal politics, personality clashes and left-right tribalism of the Labour Party tedious, this forms an essential backdrop to any serious assessment of a major post-war Labour politician. There is also a wealth of detail on the other members of the Foot clan, and their individual life and works.
A dry, but rewarding read.

Sloppy work
Kenneth Morgan's bibliography lists me as Clyde Rollyson, not correctly as Carl Rollyson. He lists my book as TO BE A WOMAN and leaves off the important subtitle, A LIFE OF JILL CRAIGIE (Michael Foot's wife). He lists the publisher of my book as Ashgate. The publisher is, in fact, Aurum Press. Worst of all, he appropriates the story of Foot's affair with "Lamia" recounted in full detail in my book, TO BE A WOMAN, without even citing my book. Indeed he provides no source at all, not even an interview with Michael Foot, who I interviewed extensively for my book. The press has given Mr. Morgan credit for a story that is not his, and I can see why, since he does not acknowledge my work.