EMINENT PARLIAMENTARIANS: THE SPEAKER'S LECTURES

To mark the centenary of the Parliament Act of 1911, the Speaker of the House John Bercow commissioned 11 lectures on eminent parliamentarians of the 20th century. The Act established once and for all the supremacy of the House of Commons over the House of Lords and the subjects of the lectures, both Conservative and Labour MPs, were people for whom parliamentary democracy was a passion, including Lloyd George, Aneurin Bevin, Enoch Powell, Roy Jenkins and Tony Benn. Benn himself was present for the lecture on his own career delivered by Tristram Hunt, who sees his subject as driven by the twin ideals of Parliament and Puritanism. Nicholas Soames is magisterial on the legacy of his grandfather Winston Churchill, revealing the man who wrote all his own speeches and would prepare them for six weeks: "Winston has spent the best years of his life composing his impromptu speeches", as a friend remarked. Two women are among those celebrated: Shirley Williams, herself a pioneering MP, spoke about the first woman in parliament, Nancy Astor, who was persuaded to stand for her husband's seat of Plymouth following his inheritance of a peerage, though Churchill disliked her intrusion into the men-only club. The other woman to be celebrated is of course Margaret Thatcher, whose close adviser John Whittingale reveals that she found Prime Minister's Questions so daunting that she used to tremble. Among the other subjects, Douglas Hurd's assessment of Iain McLeod's One Nation Toryism is particularly interesting. 295pp, black and white reproductions.