reviews electoral system prior to the Great Testament of hope Reform Act and the municipal reforms of the 1830s. Shirley Williams, Climbing the Bookshelves (Virago Press, This points to the main prob- 2009) lem with this volume for anyone interested in wider themes in Reviewed by Tom McNally political history than the his- tory of Scarborough: the lack of political context which could be ne always approaches history will find the book of illuminated by the primary mate- reviewing the autobi- interest in giving a very accurate rial provided by the biographies. Oography of a very old telling of the story of those who The authors do not seem to have friend with a certain trepidation. made the often emotional jour- consulted Pelling, for example; What if it is awful? How candid ney from the heart of the Labour their local knowledge could use- a critic can one be without being Party, via the SDP, to the Liberal fully have added to his assessment hurtful? Thankfully Shirley Democrats. There is not doubt and helped explain Scarborough’s Williams has written a memoir that, if she had remained in the political eccentricity. It would which gives me no such conflict Labour Party, Shirley Williams have been interesting to know of interests. She has written a would have gone on to hold one more about how elections were kindly book; but one which of the highest offices of state. Her conducted in Scarborough, the deals frankly with her own emo- book, however, is happily free of party organisations in the town, tions and failures. She also gives the ‘might have beens’. Although and links with other institutions a stark reminder of the difficul- she does concede two errors dur- such as the churches. ties for a woman politician in the ing the SDP days which made The authors have written a sexist, male chauvinist world of the journey travelled by both the number of biographical diction- the 1960s and 1970s. SDP and the Liberals more pain- aries relating to Scarborough and Like many political biogra- ful than it might have been. are clearly performing a valuable phies, it is her childhood and Her decision not to contest service to students of the town’s youth which proves most fas- the Warrington by-election in local history. There is some inter- cinating to someone already 1981, which she would probably esting material in this volume familiar with the political career. have won, was a major failure for the political historian, princi- Hers was not an orthodox of nerve. As she frankly admits, pally to indicate questions about middle-class family life, given ‘My reputation for boldness, politics at the grassroots in the her two distinguished academic acquired in the long fight within nineteenth century rather than to and politically active parents. the Labour Party, never wholly provide any answers. In addition it was lived in the recovered.’ That lack of confi- shadow and then the reality of dence also revealed itself in her Robert Ingham is Biographies Editor the Second World War. I have to willingness to defer first to Roy of the Journal of Liberal History. confess, however, that, as I read Jenkins and then to the chapter on childhood and in the leadership of the SDP. youth, the picture which came in She is equally candid about this to my mind was that of ‘George’, failure: ‘Like many women of the tomboy heroine of Enid Bly- my generation and of the genera- ton’s ‘Famous Five’ books. tion before mine, I thought of As youth gives way to early myself as not quite good enough womanhood the friendships and for the very highest positions in love affairs are remembered with politics.’ That self-deprecation due discretion; but with colour meant that in the 1987 general and flavour to capture the mood election the Alliance was ‘led’ by and personalities of post-war the uncomfortable Owen/Steel Oxford and fifties London. partnership which the electorate The book is a useful reminder sussed as a mismatch long before that public figures have to live election day. A more confident their public life whilst surviv- and decisive Shirley might have ing all the trials and tribula- avoided a few of the missed tions which beset the rest of opportunities on the way to the us. Love, marriage, births and birth of the Liberal Democrats. bereavements do not work to a However, she made, and contin- politically convenient timetable. ues to make, a massive contribu- Shirley deals with all of these tion to the work of our party, with candour and poignancy both in policy development and which will make the book of campaigning. In many ways she interest to those not closely reminds me of one of her Ameri- involved in the minutiae of can heroes, Hubert Humphrey, politics. in her optimism in the political On a second level, I hope process to find solutions to dif- readers of Liberal Democrat ficult problems.

44 Journal of Liberal History 68 Autumn 2010 reviews

In that respect the book has young women as any feminist further value as a story to be tract. commended to any young person Memoirs are, by their very who is considering becoming nature, backward looking, involved in politics; but who is particularly when written by a deterred by modern-day cyni- woman in her eightieth year. cism about the parliamentary Yet, as the final chapters of the and political process. Here is a book show, here is a politician story of someone who came from deeply concerned about nuclear a comfortable middle-class back- proliferation and using her ground which provided her with amazing network of contacts to the education and the oppor- influence disarmament policy tunity to choose almost any on both sides of the Atlantic, or profession she wanted. Not only using her experience and demo- that, she could, more than once, cratic credentials to promote have quit the political arena and good governance in the Ukraine settled for a comfortable aca- and Latin America. With no demic berth on either side of the large party or high office to Atlantic. Instead, she chose to underpin her ventures, she is stay with the rough and tumble received at the highest level of party and parliamentary poli- in Africa, in the Middle East, tics. The book is an affirmation China and India, as well as in of both the parliamentary and any capital in Europe. She is still the democratic process by some- someone influencing policy and one who has walked the walk policy-makers in many parts of and got the scars to show for it. the world. What is more, she has done so Shirley’s mother, Vera Brit- not by delivering great thoughts tain wrote one of the greatest from Olympian heights, but by books to come out of the First getting down in the trenches World War: Testament of Youth. with the poor bloody infantry. It was a unique book written Many a time I have asked Shirley in unique circumstances. Her of public funds rather than their her plans for the weekend after daughter, however, has written private lives. a very full week in the Lords, a testament of hope by someone Screwing Up is an unusual only to be told that she was off with eyes still firmly fixed on the political memoir. Oaten’s prose is to speak at a party event in some possibilities of tomorrow. written in a sympathetic if some- location far from the Westmin- what dull way, and he comes ster village. Her book reveals Lord Tom McNally is Minister of across as ordinary and genuinely the difficulties, and sometimes State at the Ministry of Justice and likeable. The tone is self-depre- the pain, of a woman trying to Deputy Leader of the House of cating, and he reserves bad words make her way in politics and Lords. MP for Stockport 1979–83, he only for the party activists typi- parliament, and as such it should was one of the founders of the Social fied by the ‘Liberator collective’ provide as inspirational a read for Democratic Party. who were opposed to his right- wing leanings and for bloggers who indulged in innuendo about what Oaten may have got up to in his private life. The structure of Screwing Up The end of the affair is also different to many politi- cal memoirs. Chapters focus on Mark Oaten, Screwing Up (Biteback, 2009) MPs’ foreign trips and, presum- Reviewed by Tom Kiehl ably due to the mood of the time when the book was published, the intricacies of parliamentary ublished on the eve of the the party’s last major spectacle expenses. The book seems to Liberal Democrats’ 2009 ahead of the 2010 general elec- assume its readership has only a PAutumn Federal Confer- tion. However, coming as it does casual knowledge of the work ence, Screwing Up, the political in the aftermath of the parlia- of an MP and therefore gets memoirs of the former leader- mentary expenses scandal that bogged down with these weaker ship candidate Mark Oaten, dominated British politics for chapters. who resigned from the party’s much of 2009, Screwing Up was There is, unfortunately, little frontbench in January 2006 fol- suitably timed for Oaten, who in Screwing Up for either politi- lowing tabloid revelations of an did not seek re-election, to reha- cal anoraks or scholars of recent affair with a rent boy, received bilitate himself at a period when Liberal Democrat history to get criticism from some activists public contempt for politicians is their teeth into. The chapter on for reopening a wound during reserved for the extravagant use working with

Journal of Liberal History 68 Autumn 2010 45