The Prime Minister: The Office and Its Holders Since 1945

Biographies & Memoirs

Hennessy, Peter

Leaders & Notable People

Harpercollins

Whitehall

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

Fontana/Collins

Ben Pimlott's biography of Hugh Dalton won the Whitbread Prize, now the author turns his attention to Harold Wilson. The book combines scholarship and observations to illuminate the life and career of one of Britain's most controversial post-war statesmen. Wilson is one of the most enigmatic personalities of recent British history. He held office as Prime Minister for longer than any other Labour leader, and longer than any other premier in peacetime apart from Mrs Thatcher. His success at winning General Elections - four in all - has so far not been matched. His grasp of economic policy was better than that of any other Prime Minister, and he enjoyed a high reputation among foreign leaders. Yet, in retrospect, he seems a master tactician rather than a strategiest - and he is regarded today with more curiosity than respect, when he is not treated with contempt.

Harold Wilson

Pimlott, Ben.

Historical

William Collins

In The Prime Minister: the Office and its Holders since 1945, Peter Hennessy explores the formal powers of the Prime Minister and how each incumbent has made the job his or her own. Drawing on unparalleled access to many of the leading figures, as well as the key civil servants and journalists of each period, he has built up a picture of the hidden nexus of influence and patronage surrounding the office. From recently declassified archival material he reconstructs, often for the first time, precise prime ministerial attitudes towards the key issues of peace and war. He concludes with a controversial assessment of the relative performance of each Prime Minister since 1945, from Clement Atlee and Winston Churchhill to Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, and proposes a new specification for the premiership as it enters its fourth century. 'I really can't praise it too highly: a tremendous achievement ... an instant classic' Antony Jay, author of Yes, Prime Minister 'Supersedes everything else written on the subject. If I were Tony Blair, I'd keep a copy by my bedside' Adam Sisman, Observer 'A must ... far and away the best account of the office of the First Lord of the Treasury, its history, powers and practice, and an independent assessment of the occupants of Downing Street since the Second World War' Tony Benn, Spectator 'Important and extremely readable ... Hennessy's portrait of the Blair premiership is fascinating ... a major contribution to our understanding of how we are governed' Peter Oborne, Sunday Express Peter Hennessy is Attlee Professor of History at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London. Among many other books, he is the author of The Secret State, Whitehall and Never Again: Britain 1945-1951, which in 1993 won the NCR Award for Non-Fiction and the Duff Cooper Prize.

Prime Minister,The: The Office And Its Holders Since 1945

Penguin Uk

Having It So Good: Britain In The Fifties

Winner of the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, Peter Hennessy's Having it So Good: Britain in the Fifties captures Britain in an extraordinary decade, emerging from the shadow of war into growing affluence. The 1950s was the decade in which Roger Bannister ran the four-minute mile, Bill Haley released 'Rock Around the Clock', rationing ended and Britain embarked on the traumatic, disastrous Suez War. In this highly enjoyable, original book, Peter Hennessy takes his readers into front rooms, classrooms, cabinet rooms and the new high-street coffee bars of Britain to recapture, as no previous history has, the feel, the flavour and the politics of this extraordinary time of change. 'Utterly engaging ... a treat. It breathes exhilaration' Libby Purves, The Times 'If the Gods gossip, this is how it would sound' Philip Ziegler, Spectator Books of the Year 'A particular treat ... fine, wise and meticulously researched' Andrew Marr 'Stands clear of the field as our best narrative history of this decisive decade' Peter Clarke, Sunday Times 'A compelling narrative ... Hennessy's love of the flesh and blood of politics breathes on every page' Tim Gardam, Observer 'The late Ben Pimlott once described Hennessy as "something of a national institution". You can forget the first two of those five words' Guardian Peter Hennessy is Attlee Professor of History at Queen Mary College, London, and the Director of the Mile End Institute of Contemporary British Government, Intelligence and Society. He is the author of Never Again: Britain 1945-51 (winner of the NCR and Duff Cooper Prizes), Having it So Good: Britain in the Fifties (winner of the Orwell Prize); the bestselling The Prime Minister and The Secret State.

Having it So Good

History

Europe

As Cold War Britain came under the terrifying shadow of nuclear destruction, secret government plans were underway to ensure the survival of a chosen few. Peter Hennessy's book draws on recently declassified intelligence and war-planning documents, and interviews with key officials, to reveal a chilling behind-the-scenes picture of the corridors of power when the world teetered on the brink of disaster. Who would have gone underground with the Prime Minister in the event of an attack? Where is their secret bunker? Under what circumstances would we retaliate? Where were the Soviets' UK targets thought to be? Whose finger was - and is - on the button? And what kind of world would have been left when the dust had settled and 'breakdown' had occurred ...?

The Secret State: Whitehall and the Cold War

Penguin Global

From the high politics of Court and Cabinet room to the everyday discussions in kitchen or queue, Peter Hennessy's Never Again: Britain 1945-51 recreates the mood and feel of life in early post-war Britain. At the end of the Second World War Britain was in flux. It was an age of rationing and rebuilding; when hope for a better future contrasted with the horror of war. Fresh ideals emerged during the common experience of the conflict and the new, widespread belief that everyone should be treated equally led to the creation of the 'welfare state' and the NHS, despite tough economic circumstances. Internationally, Britain was finding a place in a world increasingly overshadowed by Cold War with the Soviet Union. 'A joy to read'  Sunday Times 'Hennessy is never for a moment dull'  Philip Ziegler, Daily Telegraph 'Jumping like a tree frog from blue book to nostalgic reminiscence to brilliant one-liner, Hennessy conjures up the Attlee years more vividly than any previous historical writer'  Ben Pimlott 'Hennessy is the antithesis of the dry-as-dust academic historian. He laughs a great deal, and punctuates his writing with cheery and illuminating anecdotes'  Ian Aitken, Guardian 'A sympathetic, highly readable, meticulously researched account of the Cabinet room politics and popular habits of life and recreation during the high noon of Labourism'  Roy Jenkins, Observer Peter Hennessy is Attlee Professor of History at Queen Mary College, London, and the Director of the Mile End Institute of Contemporary British Government, Intelligence and Society. He is the author of Never Again: Britain 1945-51 (winner of the NCR and Duff Cooper Prizes), Having it So Good: Britain in the Fifties (winner of the Orwell Prize); the bestselling The Prime Minister and The Secret State.

Never Again: Britain 1945 To 1951

Review\nPeter Hennessy writes like he talks, which produces a delightfully wandering narrative, peppered with quirky anecdotes, that surreptitiously delivers powerful insights. This is by far the best study of early Sixties Britain; one to please the masses and wow the scholars. ... Hennessy, unique among contemporary historians, understands politics from the inside out. The book is so much fun, yet still shrewd and important - Gerard DeGroot - The Times Books of the Year\nProfessor Peter Hennessy is a fine historian of late-twentieth-century Britain. He is a master of all the published sources, and his generous personality, academic distinction and unquestioned integrity have meant that he adds to them a lifetime of the confidences and insights of most of those who have actually made our history. ... So, a standing ovation for Peter Hennessy, a good man who writes very good books. - Chris Patten - Tablet\nHennessy is a national treasure. He is driven by a romantic, almost sensual, fascination with British history, culture, and the quirky intricacies of British democracy and the government machine. His curiosity is insatiable, his memory infinitely capacious. - Rodric Braithwaite - Spectator\n[G]enially narrated... what makes him such a deft public historian is the way he stitches these patches of rich local colour into a narrative with the widest possible reach. ... Hennessy has such a keen associative eye and such a generous heart for the sheer oddness of everything that the narrative spins along like a comfortable chat. - Kathryn Hughes - Guardian\nsplendid history of postwar Britain... Hennessy's writing is characterised by a wonderful mixture of wit and erudition. - Piers Brandon - Literary Review\na deeply-informed book that has, nearly 60 years later, powerful resonance. The foremost chronicler of the era, Hennessy combines the intricate detail with stylistic verve. - Philip Stephens - Financial Times\nThis is the third in Hennessy's wonderfully insightful series of books that make up a portrait of a nation coming to terms with victory in a ravaging war and the loss of empire. Like the others - Never Again and Having It So Good - it performs a singular balancing act between social history and cabinet-room politics. No current historian is as versed as Hennessy in the internal cogs and springs of the British state, but he also has a keen eye for the luminous face of passing time. - Tim Adams - Observer\na masterful survey of Britain as the decade began ... For those who know him only from the radio, Hennessy is as good a writer as he is a talker. ... I am afraid that he is now a treasure. - David Aaronovitch - The Times\nflavoursome, but authoritative, account ... This history is none the worse - quite the opposite - for being such a personal one; but it is the intense erudition underpinning Hennessy's intimate reflections that makes it so utterly indispensable. - Simon Heffer - Daily Telegraph\nfascinating ... dominated by the author's personal enthusiasms, researches and memories - Max Hastings - Sunday Times\nFrom the celebrated author of Never Again and Having It So Good, a wonderfully vivid new history of Britain in the early 1960s 
Harold Macmillan famously said in 1960 that the wind of change was blowing over Africa and the remaining British Empire. But it was blowing over Britain too - its society; its relationship with Europe; its nuclear and defence policy. And where it was not blowing hard enough - the United Kingdom's economy - great efforts were made to sweep away the cobwebs of old industrial practices and poor labour relations. Life was lived in the knowledge that it could end in a single afternoon of thermonuclear exchange if the uneasy, armed peace of the Cold War tipped into a Third World War. 
In Winds of Change we see Macmillan gradually working out his 'grand design' - how to be part of both a tight transatlantic alliance and Europe, dealing with his fellow geostrategists Kennedy a

Winds of Change: Britain in the Early Sixties

Historical Study & Educational Resources

Penguin

Peter Hennessy's The Secret State: Preparing for the Worst 1945-2010 is the story of secret government plans for combatting attacks on Britain, from the Cold War to modern counter-terrorism. Now completely revised and updated, Peter Hennessy's acclaimed account of the secret state includes material from a host of recently declassified documents, to give an up-to-date picture of Whitehall's efforts to defend the safety of the realm. What were the secret plans for Britain if World War Three had erupted and 'breakdown' had occurred? When would the Queen have been informed and where would she have gone? How does the contingency planning for a national emergency work today? By what procedures would the Prime Minister authorise a nuclear strike and how would those orders be carried out? This book now gives the most detailed and authoritative answers to all these questions. 'Riveting, path-breaking and wonderfully readable' Christopher Andrew, The Times 'Effective and vivid ... One of the fascinations of this book is the bureaucratic aridity to which Whitehall reduced concepts of bloodcurdling awfulness' Philip Ziegler, Daily Telegraph 'An insider's insider, if ever there was one' Anthony Howard, New Statesman 'One of those rare books that reflects credit not only on the author but on its subjects too' John Crace, Guardian Peter Hennessy is Attlee Professor of History at Queen Mary College, London, and the Director of the Mile End Institute of Contemporary British Government, Intelligence and Society. He is the author of Never Again: Britain 1945-51 (winner of the NCR and Duff Cooper Prizes); the bestselling The Prime Minister and The Secret State.

The Secret State: Preparing for the Worst 1945-2001

A Duty of Care: Britain Before and After Covid

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