Thomas-Symonds describes him as adaptable, ferociously clever and hard working, with a self-awareness rare in politicians, and writes that his politics were much motivated by his early experiences of his father’s periods of unemployment and the precarity that the family faced as a result. He also has a fine eye for the funny, strange details that bring accounts like this to life – from Wilson’s PPS, a former electrician, debugging his room for him on ministerial trips to the Soviet Union, to the then Prime Minister’s insistence on having backbench MP Eric Moonman attend a Downing Street dinner given in honour of NASA’s Apollo 11 crew shortly after the moon landing in 1969.ĭespite being the focus of the book, Wilson remains somewhat obscure throughout. Thomas-Symonds writes with brio and a clear passion for his subject. Wilson was born in 1916, and the book follows him from his childhood in the north of England to his academic success at Oxford, his war years as a civil servant at the National Coal Board, into parliament and up through the ranks to Downing Street. Thomas-Symonds’ book is a lively account of the life and politics of Wilson, the Yorkshire grammar school boy who won a still unmatched four general elections for Labour in 1964, 1966 and twice in 1974. N ick Thomas-Symonds’ new biography of Harold Wilson is titled The Winner, which should give you a fair idea of the author’s thoughts about Labour’s third Prime Minister.
0 kommentar(er)
