A: Sonia Purnell, author of First Lady: The Life and Wars of Clementine Churchill, and Just Boris: A Tale of Blond Ambition (Aurum Press), writes:
Recent political convulsions have exposed the low calibre of our current batch of politicians, but should also remind us how relatively lucky we have been in the recent past. (And perhaps how we might therefore be again.) Betty Boothroyd was the first and only female Speaker of the House of Commons and one of the most popular to have held that post. Her recent interventions in the Brexit debate now that she sits in the House of Lords reminded us how generous-spirited, dignified and courageous she was. Betty Boothroyd: The Autobiography is a lively demonstration of the way politicians can be factual and fair as well as fun.
Winston Churchill once said that Clement Attlee – his deputy during the second world war and his successor after it – was a modest man who had a lot to be modest about. It was an ungracious verdict (not shared by Churchill’s wife, Clementine) on a Labour prime minister who presided over a radical postwar government that shaped much of Britain as we know it today. John Bew’s Citizen Clem combines political analysis at its best with a deep tug on our better emotions as we struggle to redefine what it means to be British.
Victim of overt and covert snobbery and relentless insurrection by his Eurosceptic wing, John Major was never given a real chance to show what he could do. It seems almost a fairytale in this age of Etonian entitlement that a boy from Brixton with a handful of O-levels could make it to No 10. His success lay not only in his fine mind – a clutch of former cabinet secretaries have hailed him as the best prime ministerial negotiator of modern times – but also his charm and, indeed, his persistence. He once went without sleep for more than 60 hours to wage parliamentary battle against the ERG of his day. John Major: The Autobiography is a readable tome about an ambitious politician who was still capable of putting country before career.
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