Thread by @JohnRentoul

Prisoners of Geography, Tim Marshall: interesting perspectives on Sykes-Picot, Kashmir & Putin’s sense of encirclement

Early Writings, Karl Marx, 1843-44, so doesn’t include only interesting thing he wrote – photocopy of The German Ideology (1846) tucked in

Talking to a Brick Wall, Deborah Mattinson’s wonderfully double-edged title about working for Gordon Brown & listening to voters, 2010

I found this in it, used as a bookmark

Beyond the Red Wall, Deborah Mattinson, now added to the shelf; my review is here
independent.co.uk/independentpre…

Next there’s a 1976 pamphlet by Christopher Mayhew, Lab MP who defected to Liberals, 1974 (I probably agreed with it then)

The Twitter thread guide to my bookcase continues...

DC Confidential, memoir of @SirSocks, ambassador to the US; review by @steverichards14
independent.co.uk/arts-entertain…

Market, State & Community: Theoretical Foundations of Market Socialism, David Miller, 1989 (refer back to

https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1312445068691693570

)

The Blair Supremacy, Lewis Minkin (quoted here, which sums up how beside-the-point it is, I think) independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…

Confessions of a Political Maverick, Austin Mitchell, the “accidental MP”, a Labour Eurosceptic and a brilliant writer

Making Peace, Senator George Mitchell, American chair of talks that led to the Good Friday Agreement: one of the best primary sources

Opinion Polls, Nick Moon, who used to do polls for The Independent on Sunday & who is one of the best & funniest in the industry

Charles Moore’s superb authorised biography of Margaret Thatcher (I have only vol 1 in physical form)

https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/917701691847401472

I wrote about vol 2 here independent.co.uk/voices/comment…

And @Andrew_Adonis posted re the Robin Butler vs Charles Powell conflagration in vol 3 here

https://twitter.com/Andrew_Adonis/status/1188089270684266496

Callaghan: A Life, Kenneth O Morgan: always been struck by the sad story of Sunny Jim’s childhood (when he was known as Leonard)

We have come to the end of another shelf; just the jumble of random CDs and cassettes left

After the “current books” pile, we carry on with Kenneth O Morgan’s Michael Foot

The Insider, Piers Morgan: can’t stand him, but his “diaries” (made up after the event, as he admitted to @campbellclaret) are readable independent.co.uk/voices/alastai…

The Norman Conquest, Marc Morris; can’t remember who recommended this to me (poss @johndavidblake) but it’s good

Momentum, Mo Mowlam: she was a wonder. 1st line: “When I became Secretary of State for N. Ireland…” which is what she calls it throughout

As if spelling out “Northern” is somehow more accepting of partition

I knocked on her door to interview her for my book on Blair: she was standing in the waste paper basket stamping out a fire from a fag-end

A View from the Foothills: The Diaries of Chris Mullin; I really liked this: a mere 6 posts on the blog about it
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The Rivals and The Accidental American, James Naughtie, 2001 & 04; couldn’t find my review of the 1st, but found this (which refers to it)
independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…

Full Disclosure, @afneil’s excellent 1996 memoir, incl 1997 preface which I think is definitive on Blair-Murdoch relationship

Privatisation, ed Julia Neuberger, 1987; chapters by me, “The Case Against”, Lord Ezra, “A Middle Course”, Peter Clarke, “The Argument For”

Mine is more a market-socialist criticism of the way Thatcher did it than an argument against the principle, but I think I got away with it

The guided tour of the bookcase continues. Next slide please

The Atlas of Unusual Borders, Zoran Nikolic: truly my kind of book (below: part of Austria joined at a point, the peak of a mountain)

The Voice of the Backbenchers – The 1922 Committee: the first 90 years, 1923-2013, Philip Norton

The Committee, originally representing Tory MPs elected in Nov 1922, was founded by Gervais Rentoul, 2nd cousin twice removed of mine

The Ponting Affair, Richard Norton-Taylor, 1985: useful reminder of how mistaken journalism can be

The Economics of Feasible Socialism, Alec Nove, 1983: I think proposes a market economy with no large privately owned enterprises

The Rise of Political Lying @OborneTweets 2005: we entered into a long email exchange in which I showed to my satisfaction he was mistaken

The Hubris Syndrome, 2007; In Sickness & in Power, 2008; David Owen: I wasn’t impressed independentblogposts.wordpress.com/2018/01/02/bla…

The Time Has Come, David Owen & David Steel, 1987 SDP Liberal Alliance manifesto: I was glad it hadn’t

Next up a pseudonymous booklet about Tower Hamlets politics by “Richard Pelham”, 1995, It’s Better Not to Go Back

I once knew who wrote it, a colourful anonymised tale of left-right Labour politics & the Liberal Democrat insurgency 1986-94

Origins of the Labour Party, Henry Pelling, 2nd ed 1965: proper history

Where was I? Brown’s Britain, Robert Peston, 2005, or, Why I Should Be PM, by Gordon Brown

The answer wasn’t given in the book, or indeed when Brown became PM, but came with the collapse of Lehman in 2008

The Queen, Ben Pimlott; & pamphlet of lecture, “Writing about Royalty”, by “an unlikely royal biographer”

Harold Wilson, Ben Pimlott: thickest book on these shelves, solid 3in; wonderful book

Ben was a great friend who died in 2004, aged 58; his copy for New Statesman was a Tipp-Ex-spattered mess but always read beautifully

He & I produced a magazine called Samizdat, 1988-90 (I cdn’t do so publicly, working for BBC), promoting dialogue between Labour & Lib Dems

Words and Rules, Steven Pinker: fantastic book about an unlikely subject, regular and irregular verbs

David Blunkett, by @stephenpollard: one of those books that became part of the subject’s story, like Owen Bennett on Michael Gove (above)

https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1280182870766731264

Caused hooha in Dec 2004 over Blunkett’s low opinion of cabinet colleagues, who then failed to rally to his defence re son’s nanny’s visa

Blunkett lost his job as home secretary; came back 5 months later as work & pensions sec, but only for another 6 months: a great loss

Ten Days that Changed the Nation, @stephenpollard: a quirky selection of pivotal dates in modern British history

The 10 dates are:
1 Windrush
2 Arts Council founded
3 Comprehensivisation
4 Microwave patent
5 Labour diluted MPs’ votes for leader
6 It’s a Royal Knockout
7 Derek Bentley hanged
8 Sky bought rights to Premiership football
9 Fatwa on Rushdie
10 Greer’s The Female Eunuch published

Next slide please; we’re up to R

Selected Poems, Ezra Pound: classic problem of separating art from artist; but of sentimental value; & a favourite of RF Langley (above)

https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1312444197123747840

Great Hatred, Little Room, @jnpowell1: terrific account how Good Friday Agreement was done (not about Blair-Brown rivalry in Downing St)

Then paperback & hardback copies of @jnpowell1’s New Machiavelli, which is contrary to policy (namely: duplicate books on shelf upstairs) independentblogposts.wordpress.com/2018/02/22/the…

Another book I liked a lot: four more blog posts about it
independentblogposts.wordpress.com/2018/02/22/of-…
https://t.co/JB4Hz9YQMd
independentblogposts.wordpress.com/2018/02/21/the…
independentblogposts.wordpress.com/2018/02/21/the…
independentblogposts.wordpress.com/2018/02/21/the…
And a mention in a column
independent.co.uk/voices/comment…

One of these days I must ask @jnpowell1 who the “perhaps 5th” PM is independentblogposts.wordpress.com/2018/02/21/the…

One of @jnpowell1’s books I don’t have a physical copy of is Talking to Terrorists, but I wrote about it here
independent.co.uk/voices/comment…

Prezza: Pulling No Punches, John Prescott memoir written with Hunter Davies: @andrewrawnsley didn’t like it theguardian.com/books/2008/jun…

The Spin Doctor’s Diary, @mrlanceprice: excellent on 1998-2001 from the deputy to @campbellclaret, who once said: “Life is on the record”

Where Power Lies: PMs vs the Media, @mrlanceprice, his considered reflections furtherarchives.wordpress.com/2018/05/21/bro…

Theresa May: The Enigmatic PM, @RosaFPrince I wrote about it when May announced the 2017 election independent.co.uk/voices/theresa…

St Albion Parish News, @PrivateEyeNews 1998

The Grit in the Oyster, Keith Proud: biography of John Burton, Blair’s mentor & agent in Sedgefield

God, Man & Mrs Thatcher, Jonathan Raban, 1989: “A Critique of Mrs Thatcher’s Address to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland”

I thought it profound at the time; would file under “towering condescension” now

The Giles Radice section: Friends & Rivals: Crosland, Jenkins & Healey, 2002; the 3 lost leaders of British social democracy...
independent.co.uk/arts-entertain…

… Diaries, 1980-2001, more vital source material; Trio: Inside the Blair, Brown, Mandelson Project, 2010, another comparative biography

Servants of the People, @andrewrawnsley, 2001: *the* essential narrative of the 1st Blair term

I recall when 1st ed came out 2000 I said TB/GB/PM relations couldn’t poss be that bad: but they were worse

The End of the Party, @andrewrawnsley, 2010: takes the story to the bitter end

Renewal, Vol 1 No 1, Jan 1993: magazine of Labour Co-ordinating Committee; editorial: “Labour – the natural party of opposition?” #QTWTAIN

The LCC, the organisation that saved the Labour Party, although it nearly destroyed it first, was wound up in 1998
independent.co.uk/news/new-labou…

Renewal, Vol 1, No 4, Oct 1993: “Why modernisation matters” by Tony Blair, shadow home sec

Right, we’re up to R, so we skip past a section of my own books, incl 5 successive editions of my book on Blair, 1995 to 2013

Two copies of my father’s book Ferenczi’s Language of Tenderness, about Sandor F, friend of Freud’s until he was written out of the script

The Sinking of the Belgrano, Desmond Rice & Arthur Gavshon, 1984: another useful reminder of fashionable wrongness

https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1327973247669952512

independentblogposts.wordpress.com/2018/02/13/aft…

Whatever It Takes, 2010: Terrific book; all the more damning of Gordon Brown because of @steverichards14’s admiration of him independent.co.uk/arts-entertain…

Hug Them Close, Peter Riddell, 2004: essential account of Blair’s “article of faith”, that the UK should stand by the US

The Unfulfilled Prime Minister, Peter Riddell, 2006: I don’t like the title, but it captures Blair’s frustration of 2005-07

The Unconventional Minister, Geoffrey Robinson, 2000: gem of a memoir from one of the more colourful characters in the New Labour drama

Here’s Robinson’s account of how he invited Peter Mandelson to dinner in May 1996, & ended up lending him £370k

Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases, Everyman ed 1925: I used to use this before the internet

It ought to be in the reference section, really, with the Bible, Fowler and the Wild Flowers

https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1289938580278665218

Live From Downing Street, @bbcnickrobinson, 2012: great part memoir, part history of PMs & journalists

Nick & I worked on BBC On The Record, incl on this interview with Barry Porter, Tory MP, in Apr 1990

Joan Tull, a talented researcher, had spoken to Porter beforehand, but Nick and I didn’t believe he would say it

Betting the House: The Inside Story of the 2017 Election, @TimRoss_1 & @TomMcTague: I am quoted on the back

Serving the People: Co-operative Party History from Fred Perry to Gordon Brown, @GR1900, 2007 (FP’s father Sam was 1st national sec, 1917)

Gordon Brown: The Biography, Paul Routledge, 1998, with a generous inscription

This was the paragraph that prompted @campbellclaret to tell @andrewrawnsley Gordon had to get a grip on his “psychological flaws”

Why You Should Read Children’s Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise, Katherine Rundell: short thread

https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1213909104248446982

These LRB articles by Katherine Rundell are also lovely lrb.co.uk/contributors/k…

Torture Team, @philippesands: important story of how George W Bush allowed torture – wrong & ineffective

From Nuremberg to The Hague: The Future of International Criminal Justice, ed @philippesands, 2003 (note the date)

Includes a chapter by @CherieBlairQC, then also at Matrix Chambers, “Prospects & issues for the ICC: lessons from Yugoslavia & Rwanda”

Off Whitehall, Derek Scott, Blair’s Eurosceptic economic adviser to 2003, died 2012, described himself as an “outsider on the inside”

Next up: 2 lovely books by Ella Frances Sanders, Lost in Translation (untranslatable words) & Speaking in Tongues (curious expressions)

That’s Swedish; then there is this from the other book

https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/813348314947211264

Now the big fat books of the Anthony Seldon section; first Major: A Political Life, 1997 (but no one was v interested in him by then)

Blair, Anthony Seldon, 2004; then the next shelf has Blair Unbound, 2007; & Brown, Cameron & May at 10: all essential foundations

After The Gallup International Public Opinion Polls: Great Britain, 1937-1975, George H Gallup, 2 vols (out of alphabetical order)

I did a long thread of those poll findings (not as long as this one), which is collected here
docs.google.com/document/d/16Q…

https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1222266040454995969

The “New Right” Enlightenment, ed Arthur Seldon (Anthony’s father), 1985, preface by Frederick Hayek

Labour’s Grass Roots, Patrick Seyd & Paul Whiteley, 1992; incl survey of party members’ attitudes – how much has changed?

The Militant Tendency, Peter Shipley, 1983; a year before @MichaelLCrick’s definitive book – see earlier

https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1290628973488222209

Shipley was a Tory researcher in Thatcher’s policy unit, but Tories saw accurately what a problem Militant were for Labour

Journey’s End, RC Sherriff: WW1 play in which Blair played the lead at Fettes; incl the lines, “It’s quiet even now;” “Too damn quiet”

All Out War, @ShippersUnbound: immediate & brilliant history of the 2016 referendum campaign independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-…