Book description
The Benn Diaries, embracing the years 1940-1990, are already
established as a uniquely authoritative, fascinating and readable
record of political life. The selected highlights that form this
single-volume edition include the most notable events, arguments and
personal reflections throughout Benn's long and remarkable career as a
leading politician.
The narrative starts with Benn as a schoolboy and takes the reader
through his youthful wartime experiences as a trainee pilot, his
nervous excitement as a new MP during Clement Atlee's premiership and
the tribulations of Labour in the 1950s, when the Conservatives were
in firm control. It ends with the Tories again in power, but on the
eve of Margaret Thatcher's fall, while Tony Benn is on a mission to
Baghdad before the impending Gulf War.
Over the span of fifty years, the public and private turmoil in
British and world politics is recorded as Benn himself moves from
wartime service to become the baby of the House, Cabinet Minister, and
finally the Commons' most senior Labour Member.
Tony Benn is the longest serving MP in the history of the Labour
Party. He entered the Commons in 1950 and with Ted Heath held the record
post-war timespan as an MP. He has held four cabinet posts and has twice
contended the leadership of the Labour Party, of which he has also been
Chairman. He has written over fifteen books. Ruth Winstone has edited
all volumes of Tony Benn's Diaries and several biographies of political
figures. She is associate editor of the
Times Guide to the House of Commons
; and currently works as a Library Clerk in the Commons.
