John Campbell.
JOHN cAMPBELL: ROY JENKINS BIOGRAPHY
ROY JENKINS: A WELL-ROUNDED LIFE (2014)
Winner of the 2014 Political Book Awards Political Biography of the Year
Shortlisted for the 2014 samueal Johnson Prize
Shortlisted for the 2014 Costa Biography Award
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Roy Jenkins (born 1920) was one of the most prominent Labour politicians of his day. The son of a Welsh coal miner, he won a scholaship to Oxford University, and served during the Second World War as an intelligence officer. He was first elected as a Labour MP in 1948. In 1965, under the prime minstership of Harold Wilson, be became Home Secretary. In that role he pushed through a raft of social reform legislation, inlcuding the abolition of capital punishment and theatre censorship, the suspension of corporate punishment in prisons (birching), the de-criminalisation of homosexuality, the liberalisation of abortion law, and the relaxing of divorce law. He served as a UK Commisioner to the European Communities, then re-entered UK politics by joing the ‘Gang of Four’ who split from the Labour party to form the Social Democratic Party. As an SDP candidate he won the Glasgow Hillhead by-election, and became leader of the SDP. After losing his seat he was elected to the honorific post of Chancellor of Oxford Univesity. Reviewing the book in the Guardian, Chris Mullin wrote: ‘This is an official biography, but not a hagiography. Despite owning up to having been "an enthusiastic foot soldier of the SDP" and a lifelong admirer of his subject, Campbell, a professional to his fingertips, has left no stone unturned and the result is an objective and compelling account of a remarkable life.’
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John Campbell (born 1947) is a distinguished and prolific biographer, whose subjects have included Lloyd George, F.E.Smith, Aneurin Bevan, Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher. He was educated at Charterhouse and the University of Edinburgh, where he obtained his PhD in politics.
