reviews expert views on developments the different personalities and ­President professional careers independ- in French politics since the 1980s perceptions of the two party ent of their partners.) The forty and an attempt by Mao Zedong leaders. Although that spe- Gore spouses whose lives are sum- to make contact with President cific dispute could have been marised in these pages are of Roosevelt in 1945, respectively. avoided, the tensions between presents an necessity a very motley bunch. Two well-written chapters Owen and Steel which under- interesting Some remain well-known show the limitations of counter- mined the performance of the and relatively famous. Oth- factual history. Simon Buckby Alliance in the 1987 general range of ers have lapsed into obscurity. and Jon Mendelsohn argue how election were surely inevitable. Many of the earlier individuals, Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination In conclusion, President Gore essays and like Anne North, Joan Can- in 1995 might have prevented presents an interesting range of ning, Catherine Wellington, a peaceful settlement being essays and will appeal to any- will appeal to Georgina Salisbury and Han- reached between Israel and the one with an interest in political anyone with nah Rosebery, are now largely Palestinians but also recognise history. Few of the chapters forgotten figures. Other, more that peace would only have disappoint or, forgetting that an interest contemporary, ladies like Clem- been possible if Yasser Ara- counterfactual history is meant mie Churchill, Mary Wilson, fat had displayed a degree of to be a technique for analysing in political and Norma statesmanship otherwise absent what actually did happen, lapse Major, are widely remembered, throughout his long career. into pure fiction. Few, however, history. even admired, by many readers. Duncan Brack gives a blow-by- live up to the aims of the edi- Of all these married couples, blow account of how the dis- tor’s introduction and shed new only the Melbournes (formerly pute between the Liberal Party light on old questions. Caroline and William Lamb) and SDP over defence policy in formally separated, although 1986 should have been avoided, Robert Ingham is a historical writer Dorothy Macmillan repeatedly but also recognises that the row and Reviews Editor of the Journal pestered Harold to release her was to some extent driven by of Liberal History. from a loveless marriage, and for more than thirty years, as is well known, Lloyd George’s lifestyle was close to that of a bigamist – and an unfaithful one at that! From Catherine Walpole to There is a huge variation, however, in the amount of space Mark Hichens, Prime Ministers’ Wives – and One Husband given to each entry. By far the (: Peter Owen, 2004) longest piece in the book is on (pp. Reviewed by Dr J. Graham Jones 159–86), herself the subject of a fine biography published in 1979, two years after her death, he appearance of this Thatcher) in the light of their by her sole surviving child Mary fascinating and unique own personalities and achieve- Soames, but there are also sub- Tvolume is to be warmly ments as well as the roles they stantial essays on Mary Anne welcomed. The characters have indirectly played in British Disraeli, , and personalities of the ‘better history. , Margaret halves’ of leading politicians The volume provides us with Lloyd George and Dorothy constitute an endlessly absorb- biographies of varying detail of Macmillan. Some consorts such ing theme. Indeed, this highly each Prime Minister’s consort as Anne Grenville, Julia Peel, readable tome is an admirable from Catherine Walpole, the Sarah Campbell-Bannerman companion volume to Roger ultimately unfaithful wife of and Annie Bonar-Law are given Ellis’s and Geoffrey Treasure’s Sir Robert Walpole (generally notably short shrift in about half Britain’s Prime Ministers (Shep- considered to have been the a page. It would be interesting heard-Walwyn, 2005) (reviewed first British Prime Minister) to know how the author decided in Journal of Liberal History 53 who predeceased her husband on the allocation of space and (Winter 2006–07)), with which by eight years, to Cherie Blair, detail: do these reflect the availa- it can profitably be read in con- wife of the just-departed Prime ble amount of published material junction. The author is a well- Minister, and notable for pursu- on each individual, or simply the known biographer and historian ing a professional career in her personal interest of the compiler and a retired history teacher. In own right as well as bringing up in each one? this timely study, Mark Hich- four children. (Previously only Readers of this journal ens examines these thirty-nine Audrey Callaghan and Denis would be most attracted by wives and one husband ( had also enjoyed the absorbing accounts of

Journal of Liberal History 56 Autumn 2007 43 reviews

informed, told his daughter more well-known individuals Carol when she was research- discussed in the text (although ing his biography that he had all of these are to be found savoured being married to ‘one gathered together between pp. of the greatest women the world 128–29 in the middle of the [had] ever produced’ (p. 226). article on Dame Margaret Lloyd The volume is clearly based George, rather than spaced out on meticulous research and through the book), and a full wide-ranging reading extend- bibliography of the biogra- ing over no less than ten years. phies and other volumes found It is impressively comprehen- most useful by the author in sive and up-to-date, judicious the course of his reading. The and penetrating. Mr Hichens longer pieces also have helpful also deals honestly and tact- footnote references. fully with such sensitive issues Readers who have enjoyed as the infidelities of Catherine this compelling, highly read- Walpole, the bizarre triangular able tome will also savour the long-term relationship between same author’s even more recent Lloyd George, Dame Marga- volume, Wives of the Kings of ret and ‘the eternal mistress’, England: From Hanover to Windsor, Frances Stevenson, and Dorothy again published by Peter Owen Macmillan’s role as mistress to Publishers in September 2006, Conservative politician Bob another fine study which displays Boothby, a colleague of her the same meticulous scholarship husband’s, extending over many and lucidity. We eagerly await years. the author’s future volumes. The volume includes an Catherine Gladstone – ‘the authoritative, scholarly intro- Dr J. Graham Jones is Senior aristocrat’s daughter, uncon- duction, numerous fine por- Archivist and Head of the Welsh ventional, disorganised, full traits and photographs – many Political Archive at the National of laughter and a touch of the previously unpublished – of the Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. saint’ (p. 75); Margot Asquith – ‘quick-witted, articulate and sometimes shocking … never long out of the public eye’ (p. 103); and Dame Margaret The Liberal Democrats today Lloyd George – ‘a little darling with all her wits about her’ in Richard S. Grayson (ed.), Political Quarterly: Special Issue the words of Margot Asquith on the Liberal Democrats, vol. 78, issue 1, 2007 (Blackwell (p. 132), although she did not always stick to this opinion! Publishing) Indeed the portrait of Dame Reviewed by Jeremy Hargreaves Margaret (in an article care- fully vetted by the late lamented Mr John Grigg, the author of a marvellous four-volume his volume is an excel- they themselves did or were biography of Lloyd George), a lent picture of the Liberal involved in. figure somewhat neglected by TDemocrats, and I recom- Several of the articles tackle historians, is a notably accom- mend it to anyone who wants head-on different aspects of plished essay, based on wide and to get a good view of the many the question of who the Liberal judicious reading and superbly different aspects of the party Democrats are, in terms of posi- well crafted. But there are also – even those who have been tioning and ideology. some very fine articles on non- active in it for a while. Its nine- Former Lib Dem Director of Liberal wives like Lucy Bald- teen chapters between them Policy and editor of this volume, win, Clemmie Churchill (who look at a wide range of features Richard Grayson, himself has actually voted Liberal until of the party – and the detach- an excellent article looking at the end of her long life) and ment of the academic authors of the party’s ideology. Measured Dorothy Macmillan. Of great some chapters is well leavened against Tony Crosland’s defini- fascination, too, is the account by the fact that several other tion of a social democratic party of Denis Thatcher who, we are authors are writing about things he concludes that in its attitude

44 Journal of Liberal History 56 Autumn 2007