The Complete Reflections: Conversations with Politicians

by Peter Hennessy, Robert Shepherd, Melvyn Bragg (Foreword by)

Overview

On the BBC radio show Reflections with Peter Hennessy, the preeminent historian of British political life interviewed leading figures from the UK’s governing parties during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Bringing together transcripts of the collected interviews for the first time, The Complete Reflections features interviews the biggest names from the Thatcher era, the New Labour years, and the coalition government of the 2010s. 

In The Complete Reflections, Peter Hennessy and Robert Shepherd provide not only an overview of the past three decades of British politics but also delve into the minds of those at the forefront of public life during times of great change. Hennessy’s deep knowledge and understanding of the lives and motivations of his interviewees, along with the obvious esteem in which they hold their interlocutor, leads to frank and revealing conversations in which the subject is not an object but an equal, giving these exchanges a unique veracity. The results are portraits of high authority, in which interviews become the chronicles that endure above all others—nothing less than the first draft of history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781912208982
Publisher:	Haus Publishing
Publication date:	11/22/2020
Pages:	800
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 2.10(d)

About the Author

Peter Hennessy is an award-winning author of contemporary history books, including Never Again: Britain 1945-51, Having it So Good: Britain in the Fifties, and Winds of Change: Britain in the Early Sixties.


Robert Shepherd is a producer for radio and television based at Westminster. He is the author of Westminster: A Biography.
 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Foreword Melvyn Bragg viii

Preface xii

Shirley Williams (Baroness Williams of Crosby) 1

Jack Straw 33

Norman Tebbit (Lord Tebbit) 59

Neil Kinnock (Lord Kinnock) 85

John Major (Sir John Major) 107

Roy Hattersley (Lord Hattersley) 125

David Steel (Lord Steel of Aikwood) 149

Margaret Beckett (Dame Margaret Beckett) 171

David Owen (Lord Owen) 195

Nigel Lawson (Lord Lawson of Blaby) 221

Clare Short 247

Michael Heseltine (Lord Heseltine) 277

Vince Cable (Sir Vince Cable) 311

Margaret Hodge (Dame Margaret Hodge) 341

Kenneth Baker (Lord Baker of Dorking) 371

Tony Blair 411

William Hague (Lord Hague of Richmond) 445

Harriet Harman 473

Michael Howard (Lord Howard of Lympne) 499

Paddy Ashdown (Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon) 533

Sayeeda Warsi (Baroness Warsi) 565

David Blunkett (Lord Blunkett) 597

Iain Duncan Smith (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) 625

Chris Patten (Lord Patten of Barnes) 659

Alan Johnson 687

Norman Lamont (Lord Lamont of Lerwick) 719

Peter Hain (Lord Ham of Neath) 749

Picture Credits 775

Index 778

Editorial Reviews

Peter Hennessy’s conversations with leading politicians of our time have reinvented the political interview.

Carolyn Quinn

Compelling stuff.

Robert Peston

"An invaluable resource for historians of late twentieth-century Britain, as well as an entertaining read for those who have lived through it."

Conservative History Journal - Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay

The art of the interview is to caress, coax, and cajole your subject into revealing more about themselves than they ever planned to do. Peter Hennessy does just that with verve and panache.

Nick Robinson