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This is the autobiography of a working-class boy who became an
Oxford professor. A.H. Halsey was born in Kentish Town, London, in
1923 - a railway child in a large clan. The family moved in 1926 to
Rutland and then to Northamptonshire because the father had been
wounded in the Great War. Halsey 'won the scholarship' to Kettering
Grammar School in 1933, left school at 16, went into the RAF as a
pilot cadet. The metaphor of travel through time and space is
maintained throughout this autobiography. The story begins with
daily walks past canal boats in Oxford, flashes to the Pacific to
Hong Kong and China, and then to a glimpse of death in the John
Radcliffe Hospital, promising to explain the whole journey from a
council housing estate to a professorial chair at Oxford.
When Balfour resigned in 1905, Edward VII invited Henry
Campbell-Bannerman to form a new government. Despite winning a
large majority in the subsequent general election,
Campbell-Bannerman's Liberal Party were often thwarted by the
Conservative-led House of Lords. This biography examines
Campbell-Bannerman's career.
William Cavendish, the father of the first Earl, dissolved
monasteries for Henry VIII. Bess, his second wife, was
gaoler-companion to Mary Queen of Scots during her long
imprisonment in England. Arbella Stuart, their granddaughter, was a
heartbeat away from the throne of England and their grandson, the
Lord General of the North, fought to save the crown for Charles I.
With the help of previously unpublished material from the
Chatsworth archives, The Devonshires reveals how the dynasty made
and lost fortunes, fought and fornicated, built great houses,
patronised the arts and pioneered the railways, made great
scientific discoveries, and, in the end, came to terms with
changing times.
A Welshman among the English, a nonconformist among Anglicans and a
self-made man in the patrician corridors of power, David Lloyd
George, the last Liberal Prime Minister of Great Britain, was the
founding father of the Welfare State and was as great a peacetime
leader as Churchill was in war. In this fascinating biography of an
authentic radical, Roy Hattersley charts the great reforms - the
first old age pension, sick pay and unemployment benefit - of which
Lloyd George was architect, and also sheds light on the
complexities of a man who was both a tireless champion of the poor,
and a restless philanderer who was addicted to living dangerously.
Edwardian Britain is the quintessential age of nostalgia, often
seen as the last long summer afternoon before the cataclysmic
changes of the twentieth century began to take form. The class
system remained rigidly in place and thousands were employed in
domestic service. The habits and sports of the aristocracy were an
everyday indulgence. But it was an age of invention as well as
tradition. It saw the first widespread use of the motor car, the
first aeroplane and the first use of the telegraph. It was also a
time of vastly improved education and the public appetite for
authors such as Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling and E. M. Forster was
increased by greater literacy. There were signs too, of the corner
history was soon to turn, with the problematic Boer War hinting at
a new British weakness overseas and the drive for Votes for Women
and Home Rule for Ireland pushing the boundaries of the social and
political landscape. In this major work of history, Roy Hattersley
has been given exclusive access to many new documents to produce
this magisterial new appraisal of a legendary age.
John Wesley led the Second English Reformation. His Methodist
'Connexion' was divided from the Church of England, not by dogma
and doctrine but by the new relationship which it created between
clergy and people. Throughout a life tortured by doubt about true
faith and tormented by a series of bizarre relationships with
women, Wesley kept his promise to 'live and die an ordained priest
of the Established Church'. However by the end of the long
pilgrimage - from the Oxford Holy Club through colonial Georgia to
every market place in England - he knew that separation was
inevitable. But he could not have realised that his influence on
the new industrial working class would play a major part in shaping
society during the century of Britain's greatest power and
influence and that Methodism would become a worldwide religion and
the inspiration of 20th century television evangelism.
In 2010, the Labour Party of Great Britain suffered its worst
General Election defeat since the 1930s (with one exception),
bringing to an end thirteen years of New Labour government. Since
then, the debate over both the legacy of New Labour and the future
direction of the party has been widespread, yet so far there has
been little consideration from a social democratic perspective. The
chapters in this book cover a wide range of issues and provide new
perspectives in the areas of economic, social and foreign policy
with a central focus on the defence of the state. The chapters on
the economy put forward a strategy for economic growth through
industrial democracy and collective ownership, whilst in terms of
social policy a more radical agenda than New Labour's is advocated,
underpinned by stronger notions of social justice, equality and
welfare rights. In the context of growing nationalist sentiments
and calls for Scottish independence, this book sets out the
importance of central state activity, the promotion of a public
service ethos and civil liberties and a social democratic approach
to the increasingly important issue of national identity. Finally,
it sets out an alternative agenda on foreign and defence policy
including the promotion of international development and human
rights and a reformed Europe. Containing high-profile contributions
from journalists, academics, policy-makers and think tanks, The
Socialist Way provides new directions for electoral success and
argues that there is not a trade-off between power and principle.
Roy Hattersley's dog Buster stepped into the limelight in April
1996 after an incident with a goose in St James's Park a goose
which happened to belong to the Queen. Pursued by the press ever
since, he has sought solace in writing. Here he details the
absurdities of his life with The Man, who clearly wants to be a dog
but lacks the necessary qualities. The blood of the tundra wolves
roars through Buster's veins and demands that he hold strong views
on the role and status of the fin-de-siecle dog. Buster's book
exposes the truth about man-made fallacies such as diet, discipline
and exercise, and also extols the joys of human-ownership.
The story of Catholicism in Britain from the Reformation to the
present day, from a master of popular history - 'A first-class
storyteller' The Times Throughout the three hundred years that
followed the Act of Supremacy - which, by making Henry VIII head of
the Church, confirmed in law the breach with Rome - English
Catholics were prosecuted, persecuted and penalised for the public
expression of their faith. Even after the passing of the
emancipation acts Catholics were still the victims of
institutionalised discrimination. The first book to tell the story
of the Catholics in Britain in a single volume, The Catholics
includes much previously unpublished information. It focuses on the
lives, and sometimes deaths, of individual Catholics - martyrs and
apostates, priests and laymen, converts and recusants. It tells the
story of the men and women who faced the dangers and difficulties
of being what their enemies still call 'Papists'. It describes the
laws which circumscribed their lives, the political tensions which
influenced their position within an essentially Anglican nation and
the changes in dogma and liturgy by which Rome increasingly
alienated their Protestant neighbours - and sometime even tested
the loyalty of faithful Catholics. The survival of Catholicism in
Britain is the triumph of more than simple faith. It is the victory
of moral and spiritual unbending certainty. Catholicism survives
because it does not compromise. It is a characteristic that excites
admiration in even a hardened atheist.
Called an uneasy peace, the twenty years between the wars were a
time of turmoil - Britain saw a general strike and the worst
economic crisis in its history, armed rebellion in Ireland and open
revolt in India, a Prime Minister's resignation and the King's
abdication. Crisis followed crisis until Britain was engulfed in
the Second World War - a catastrophe that could have been foreseen,
possibly even prevented. But there were also moments of triumph:
England regained the Ashes and Britain ran to glory in the
'Chariots of Fire' Olympic Games; the BBC was born and became the
envy of the free world; there was a renaissance in poetry,
sculpture of genius, and cinema lightened the darkness for
millions. However it is the politicians who failed who have really
come to personify the interwar years - in particular Ramsey
MacDonald and Stanley Baldwin. Both prime ministers were better men
than history allows. And Winston Churchill? Right or wrong, success
or failure, he is the irrepressible force in what he called the
'years for the locusts to eat'. Hattersley's assessment of this
doomed era is illuminating, entertaining and bold.
Passionate, affectionate and indefatigably curious, In Search of
England makes a journey around the English countryside and
character. England is the most various of countries; within its
borders, life changes mile on mile. Roy Hattersley celebrates
crumbling churches and serene Victorian architecture, magnificent
hills and wind-whipped coast, our music, theatre and local customs,
and, above all, the quirky good humour and resilience of England's
denizens. In Search of England is an unapologetic love story, a
paean of praise for all the fascinating variety and flavour of
England's places and people.
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