Item Condition: Used; Very Good
1983
Tony Benn is an undeniably controversial
force in contemporary British politics.
Identified by many as the greatest threat to
the British way of life, he is in the vanguard
of the Labour left and nominated by the
media as their figurehead.
The energetic radicalism and missionary
zeal for which he is renowned are virtually
family traditions, as the author of this
biography has discovered in tracing Benn's
origins - from his great-grandfather Julius,
a Congregational minister in London's
East End (and tragically murdered by his
own son William, who ended his days ina
lunatic asylum); to his grandfather John,
founder of the Benn Brothers' publishing
empire and the first Benn to sit in
Parliament; to his father William Wedgie'
Benn, who was a Labour cabinet minister
and a privy councillor, and became Viscount
Stansgate in 1942, passing on the hereditary
title to his son in I960, and thereby
disqualifying him from being an MP in the
House of Commons.