The intensely moving memoir of Patrick Maguire, one of the ‘Maguire Seven’, wrongly imprisoned as a teenager for making bombs for the IRA.
On the night of October 5 1974, an IRA unit left bombs in two Guildford pubs: five people were killed. On the night of December 3 1974, on the strength of fabricated testimony extracted under duress from Paul Hill and Gerard Conlon (whom the police mistakenly believed had planted the Guildford bombs), Anne and Paddy Maguire, two of their four children, Vincent and Patrick, plus other family members and friends, a total of seven in all, were arrested at their home in West London. On 22 October 1975, the Guildford Four were wrongfully convicted of bombing the two pubs in Guildford. On 4 March 1976, the Maguire Seven, as they had become known, were found guilty of possession of the nitro-glycerine used in those bombings.
On 19 October 1989, the verdicts on the Guildford Four were quashed. On 26 June 1991, the convictions against the Maguire Seven of handling explosives were quashed and just over a year later, Sir John May, after producing a report on the Maguire Seven case, described it as the worst miscarriage of justice he had ever seen.
Behind these dates lie human stories – ‘My Father's Watch’ tells that of Patrick, who was the youngest of the accused, at fourteen years old. He was sentenced to four years and when he came out he had no home and no family, as both of his parents were still in jail. This book takes us through Patrick's entire life, from his working-class childhood in West London to the difficult life he has led since prison, the roots of which go back to the wrongful convictions and the destruction of the family that followed.
Patrick Maguire and the novelist Carlo Gébler have written ‘My Father's Watch’ jointly. It is not a ghosted work – told in Patrick's own voice, it is a lucid and inspiring account of one individual's experience of an appalling injustice, as well as a reminder, as the war against terror ratchets up, of just how much harm a state can do to its own innocent citizens in the name of security.

My Father’s Watch: The Story of a Child Prisoner in 70s Britain

Maguire, Patrick

Gébler, Carlo

Humor & Entertainment

Harper-perennial

Left Out: The Inside Story of Labour Under Corbyn

'THE POLITICAL BOOK OF THE YEAR' Tim Shipman\nA blistering narrative exposé of infighting, skulduggery and chaos in Corbyn's Labour party, now revised and updated.\n* A Times, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times and i Newspaper Book of the Year *\nLeft Out tells, for the first time, the astonishing full story of Labour's recent transformation and historic defeat.\nDrawing on unrivalled access, this blistering exposé moves from the peak of Jeremy Corbyn's popularity and the shock hung parliament of 2017 to Labour's humbling in 2019 and the election of Keir Starmer. It reveals a party at war with itself, and puts the reader in the room as tensions boil over, sworn enemies forge unlikely alliances and lifelong friendships are tested to breaking point.\nThis is the ultimate account of the greatest experiment seen in British politics for a generation.\n'Gripping... Every bit as good as people say' Guardian\n'Reads like a thriller...told with panache and pace' Financial Times\n'The definitive post-mortem of the Corbyn project' Sunday Times

Biographies & Memoirs

Pogrund, Gabriel

Leaders & Notable People

Vintage

'Unquestionably the political book of the year' Tim Shipman\n'An outstanding, balanced account of the Corbyn leadership' Aaron Bastani\nLeft Out is the first full account of Labour's recent transformation and historic defeat.\nThe 2017 parliament began with Labour on the precipice of power, and its left-most fringe - for so long alienated within its own party - closer to government than it had ever been. It ended with them even farther away than they started.\nFrom the peak of Jeremy Corbyn's popularity and the shock hung parliament of 2017 to Labour's humbling in 2019 and the election of Keir Starmer, Left Out draws on unrivalled access throughout the party and to both leaders' inner circles to provide a blistering narrative exposé of the Labour Party during one of the most tumultuous and significant episodes in its history.\nIt reveals a party riven by factionalism and at war over ideology, then incapacitated by crisis and indecision. From the plotting of the break-away Independent Group to the inaction and despair over accusations of anti-Semitism, from complaints of sexual harassment and bullying to foiled coups and furious disagreements over Brexit, the reader is in the room as tempers fray and tensions boil over, as sworn enemies forge unlikely alliances and lifelong friendships are tested to breaking-point.\nAt the heart of the book is Corbyn himself, a man whose like had never been seen at the top of British politics - and is unlikely to ever be seen again. Heroised for his principles by some, derided as an idealist by others, the loyalty and hatred he inspired changed not only the party but the nation.\nIntimately drawn and brilliantly told, Left Out is the revelatory inside account of how Labour became the party it is today and of the greatest experiment seen in British politics for a generation.\n*A THE TIMES, GUARDIAN, SUNDAY TIMES, iPAPER AND DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020*

Bodley Head

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Maguire, Patrick. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Maguire, Patrick