Michael Foot

In this biography of Michael Foot, a colleague and friend of many years' standing traces the career of a man who first stood as a Labour candidate at the age of 22. Recommended to Lord Beaverbrook by Aneurin Bevan, he was wartime editor of the "Evening Standard" and author of a series of campaigning books. With the support of his wife, Jill Craigie, Foot became the conscience of the Left through the years of the Aldermaston marches and the Vietnam War. Following spells as Secretary for Employment under Wilson, and Leader of the House of Commons under Callaghan, he was elected Labour Party leader in 1980 and brought his polemical skills to bear on Mrs Thatcher. But he was met with unprecedented vilification from his own side as well as the media, and it was an unhappy period which ended with Labour's catastrophic defeat in the 1983 General Election. Meanwhile, as a devotee of literature Foot produced scholarly books about Swift and Byron, as well as a massive biography of his hero, Bevan. Seeking to do full justice to Foot's achievements and to the complexities of his character, Mervyn Jones traces his personal and political development, and his relationships with personalities such as Barbara Castle, Tony Benn, Enoch Powell and Neil Kinnock. Jones's other books include over 20 novels. He was on the staff of "Tribune" under Michael Foot's editorship, and later assistant editor of "New Statesman".