Product Description

Giles Radice's diaries, which cover the years from 1980 - 2001, are not only an account of a distinguished parliamentary and political life. It is also one of only two published Labour diaries for the period (the other, of course, being that of Tony Benn) - and it is the only one written from a 'modernising' position. It follows the success of Radice's critically acclaimed Friends and Rivals, his group biography of Roy Jenkins, Denis Healey and Anthony Crosland, by giving an insider's view of the frustrating years in opposition in the 1980s, the short-lived John Smith leadership, the rise to power of Tony Blair, and of the success and failures of the Labour government from 1997-2001. It is a gripping read for all 'diary' aficionados, as well as being essential source material for historians and students of the modern Labour party. The book contains descriptions of Labour's civil war in the 1980s and the SDP split; the flaws in the Kinnock leadership; the fall of Mrs Thatcher; John Major's uneasy premiership; the rise of Tony Blair and the 1997 triumph; and a compelling portrait of Labour in power, including the tensions between Blair and Brown. It also provides an exceptional account of the European issue in British politics, as well as the fall of the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe. Above all, it exposes a revealing insight into the life of a senior Member of Parliament, with all its hopes, pressures and frustrations and its impact on family life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #444840 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-23
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

The Times
"in the mode of Alan Clark"

Review
"in the mode of Alan Clark" (The Times )

"How did Labour do it?... Read Giles Radice's just-published Diaries 1980-2001 for an excellent day-by-day account of what it took." Polly Toynbee (POLLY TOYNBEE THE GUARDIAN )

"A Labour version of the notorious diaries of Tory MP Alan Clark - but with revelations about the fall and rise of the Labour Party over the past 20 years - confined to the political rather than the personal." (The Mail on Sunday )

"From disaster to triumph in 22 years... full of anger and despair, the pure politics of a politician who has only one life to live and one career to make... One virtue of reading Radice is that it is a tale of the totally unexpected. But it is also a tale of hard work and hard slog: that long march again. Time after time, confronting its own demons, Labour did what was necessary." (Peter Preston, The Guardian )

About the Author
Giles Radice was a Labour MP for twenty-eight years and is now in the House of Lords. He was a member of Roy Jenkins' campaign team in his unsuccessful Labour leadership bid in 1976, and acted as campaign manager for Healey in his victory in 1981 over Benn for the deputy leadership, which saved the party from disintegration. Tony Blair once called him 'a Blairite before Blair'. Radice was chairman of the European Movement from 1995 to 2001 and helped set up Britain in Europe, of which he is a board member.