Political autobiography is normally defined as a work of fiction by the author, about the author. Rarely do we find examples of 'good autobiography'. Indeed, it would be easier to draw up a list of Top Ten Worst Political Memoirs.
The late Alan Clark, Conservative MP for Plymouth Sutton and latterly Kensington & Chelsea is without doubt the best right of centre diarist of recent years. Deliciously indiscreet and sexually rampaging, these diaries offer insight, gossip and smut – an unbeatable combination. ALAN CLARK’S DIARIES are published in three volumes and span the years 1972-1999.
Another great diarist is the raconteur, star of Countdown and occasional wearer of woolly jumpers Gyles Brandreth. His diary of his five year sojourn in the House of Commons during John Major’s government still serve as the best record of that awful, tired administration. BREAKING THE CODE is the title of the diary and the book revolves around the fact that as a former Government whip Brandreth has broken the whips’ code by writing about his work. He’s indiscreet about everyone and everything and the diaries read like a novel at times.
But the granddaddy of political diaries is the profilic leftwing firebrand Tony Benn. Benn retired from Parliament in 2001 to, as he puts it, go back into politics. He has written close on two million words of diaries, stretching back to the 1940s. They have been lovingly edited by Ruth Winstone into seven volumes. TONY BENN’S DIARIES are a complete, if somewhat biased history of post war Labour politics, but actually they reveal far more than that. Benn’s personal story of ideology getting the better of his ambition is a fascinating one. He’s also not afraid to show emotion and must surely count as the greatest ‘crier’ in British politics.
Although they are not strictly political diaries, Jeffrey Archer’s three volume PRISON DIARIES are a must read for anyone wanting to understand the futility of our prison system. Cast aside your preconceptions of Archer and read the first volume HELL. I’ll guarantee you’ll then want to read the other two.
Edwina Currie’s DIARIES received so much attention in the newspapers that they barely sold a fraction of what the publishers had expected. But that doesn’t make them bad. Indeed, they are highly readable and reveal a woman who was quite clearly a highly dependent emotional basket case. Despite the appearance of self confidence, Currie just wanted to be loved. The diaries are not dominated by the affair and the rest of the book should serve as a warning to all those who think that politicians have the ultimate power.
The common theme of a successful political diary or memoir is that by reading it you discover something you didn’t know about the author or their career. Too often political memoirs fail on that score. Norman Tebbit’s memoirs UPWARDLY MOBILE and those of WILLIAM WHITELAW are examples of towering politicians whose memoirs failed to live up to their billing.
Memoirs from the Thatcher government are too numerous to mention. To get a proper perspective of her administration from the inside her own memoirs are an obvious must. They come in two volumes, THE PATH TO POWER and DOWNING STREET YEARS. The latter is somewhat dryer than the former, but both volumes show Margaret Thatcher in a more human light than most would expect. Nigel Lawson’s VIEW FROM NUMBER 11 and Geoffrey Howe’s CONFLICT OF LOYALTY are both detailed but human accounts of life in government at the highest level. They reveal the conflicts which politicians at the highest level are constantly wrestling with. The other excellent memoir from the Thatcher period is John Nott’s HERE TODAY GONE TOMORROW. Nott was Defence Secretary at the time of the Falklands War. Like so many political memoirs, some of the best passages relate to his childhood and career before entering Parliament. Few expected much of JOHN MAJOR’S MEMOIRS. They assumed that a lacklustre Prime Minister would produce a lacklustre book. Wrong. They forgot about the scores he had to settle. Major’s autobiography is perhaps the best (and most bitchy) Conservative memoir of modern times.
The best Labour memoir of recent times is TIME OF MY LIFE by Denis Healey, Chancellor during the beleagured 1974-79 Labour government. Healey is one of the few politicians with a hinterland outside politics. Although universally hatred by left and right when he was Chancellor, he quickly developed an avuncular personality outside politics which he used to good effect in writing his books. Roy Jenkins’ A LIFE AT THE CENTRE is as one might expect a rather grand and elegant, if personally unrevealing memoir. Jenkins almost dominated centre left politics in the late 1960s and 1970s before leaving the Labour Party to form the SDP in 1981 and become its first leader. His memoirs demonstrate why he never quite reached the top – he, like so many politicians, lacked the killer instinct.
BILL CLINTON’S MEMOIRS are so long and detailed that they are a bit daunting for the casual reader. They’re also very self serving, although that is not unusual in political memoirs. But for all that, they reveal a weak man who recognises his own failings. Another weak man who became US President and was involved in sleaze was Richard Nixon. NIXON’S MEMOIRS rank as my favourite political memoirs of all time. He is the finest political writer of his generation, but because of Watergate he is reviled and disrespected both in the political and literary worlds. It’s understandable, but prejudice has no place in the literary world.
The publishing of political memoirs and diaries is on the decline. It’s partly because publishers think no on eis interested in politics but also because of commercial reality. Few big publishers will take on a book which they don’t believe will sell 10,000 copies, and there are few political books which fall into that category. But in some way our political system has itself to blame. After all, can you really see yourself forking our £18.99 to read the memoirs of Alastair Darling, Jack Straw or Patricia Hewitt? Thought not.
Iain Dale presents Vox Politix on 18 Doughty Street Talk TV
