The Political Lives of Postwar British MPs: An Oral History of Parliament

Description

Parliament is Britain's most important political institution, yet its workings remain obscure to academics and the wider public alike. MPs are often seen as 'out of touch' or 'all the same' and their individual motivations, achievements and regrets remain in the background of party politics. In this book, Emma Peplow and Priscila Pivatto draw on the History of Parliament Trust's collection of oral history interviews with postwar British MPs to highlight their diverse political experiences in Parliament. Featuring extracts from a collection of interviews with over 160 former MPs who sat from the 1950s until the 2000s, The Political Lives of Postwar British MPs gives a voice to those MPs' stories. It explores why they became interested in politics, how they found their seat and fought election campaigns, what it felt like to speak in the chamber and how their class or gender dictated their experiences at Westminster. In the process, readers will be given rare glimpse into the spaces inhabited by MPs, the political rivalries and friendships and the rising and falling of their careers. With accounts from MPs of all political stripes, from the well-known like David Owen and Ann Taylor to those who sat for just a few years such as Denis Coe; from old political families like Douglas Hurd to those like Maria Fyfe who felt themselves outsiders, this book provides deep insight into the political lives of MPs in our age.

Emma Peplow is Head of Development at The History of Parliament Trust, UK. She completed a PhD in International History at the London School of Economics, UK, and has overseen several oral history projects. Priscila Pivatto is Research Associate at The History of Parliament Trust, UK. She completed a PhD in Public Law at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and was a visiting scholar in Colombia Center for Oral History Research, USA.

Thanks to the heroic efforts of the History of Parliament Trust, these oral histories have preserved in amber an authentic but otherwise fleeting portrait of Westminster for the ages. Anybody seeking to understand the interior life of Parliament-indeed how the United Kingdom is governed-will find this book indispensable. And thoroughly fascinating! * Russell Riley, Co-chair of the Presidential Oral History Program, University of Virginia's Miller Center, USA * Every page of this fascinating book pulls into focus the human drama of electoral politics over the past half-century. Here are political lives being made and re-made, from childhood through to old age, and from the constituency campaign trail to the Parliamentary despatch box. Peplow and Pivatto are wise and sensitive guides to this unique repository. Their book will captivate anyone with a serious interest in the people who govern us. * Helen McCarthy, Lecturer in Modern British History, University of Cambridge, UK * [A] very entertaining and revealing read ... [A] very easily accessible reference work. * Liberator *