Roy Jenkins: A Biography

by John Campbell

Roy Jenkins was probably the best Prime Minister Britain never had. But though he never reached 10 Downing Street, he left a more enduring mark on British society than most of those who did. His career spans the full half-century from Attlee to Tony Blair during which he helped transform almost every area of national life and politics.

First, as a radical Home Secretary in the 1960s he drove through the decriminalisation of homosexuality and the legalisation of abortion, abolished theatre censorship and introduced the first legislation to outlaw discrimination on grounds of both race and gender. Attacked by conservatives as the godfather of the permissive society, he was a pioneering champion of gay rights, racial equality and feminism. He also reformed the police and criminal trials and introduced the independent police complaints commission.

Second, he was an early and consistent advocate of European unity who played a decisive role in achieving British membership first of the Common Market and then of the European Union. From 1977 to 1980 he served as the first (and so far only) British president of the European Commission. Public opinion today is swinging against Europe; but for the past forty years participation in Europe was seen by all parties as an unquestioned benefit, and no-one had more influence than Jenkins in that historic redirection of British policy.

Third, in 1981, when both the Conservative and Labour parties had moved sharply to the right and left respectively he founded the centrist Social Democratic Party (SDP) which failed in its immediate ambition of breaking the mould of British politics - largely because the Falklands war transformed Mrs Thatcher's popularity - but merged with the Liberals to form the Liberal Democrats and paved the way for Tony Blair's creation of New Labour.

On top of all this, Jenkins was a compulsive writer whose twenty-three books included best-selling biographies of Asquith, Gladstone and Churchill. As Chancellor of Oxford University he was the embodiment of the liberal establishment with a genius for friendship who knew and cultivated everyone who mattered in the overlapping worlds of politics, literature, diplomacy and academia; he also had many close women friends and enjoyed an unconventional private life. His biography is the story of an exceptionally well-filled and well-rounded life.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published May 26, 1983

About the author

John Campbell (born 1947) is a British political writer and biographer. He is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh. His works include biographies of Lloyd George, Roy Jenkins, F.E. Smith, Aneurin Bevan, Edward Heath, and Margaret Thatcher, the last consisting of two volumes, The Grocer's Daughter (2000) and The Iron Lady (2003). A one-volume abridgment prepared by David Freeman (a historian of Britain teaching at California State University, Fullerton) titled The Iron Lady: Margaret Thatcher, From Grocer's Daughter to Prime Minister, was published in 2009 and reissued in paperback in 2011. He was awarded the NCR Book Award for his biography of Heath. He is married with two children and lives in London.

Campbell was consultant to the 2009 production of "Margaret", a fictionalisation of Margaret Thatcher's fall from power, and the 2012 film "The Iron Lady'.

Reviews

[James Rye · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It informed me about a man I had previously admired from a distance, but about whom I had known little. The thoroughness of the book enabled me to put that admiration into a different perspective.

On the one hand, it increased my admiration. I was impressed by the industry and reading and literary output and towering intellect of this elder statesman, and by his personal qualities of seeking both to be true to his convictions and the same time try to hold a consensus together, and by his ability to make friends of his enemies. On the other hand, I found myself disliking the person who was emerging - one who appeared to isolate himself in his work and leave his wife to cope with the family, one who seemed to eat and drink too much, and one who was often rude to people he despised (I'm sure I would have received short shrift).

I was left fascinated by the perspective it gave on the SDP split in 1981 and how the same battle between the centre and hard left had been fought by Jenkins while at Oxford, and when in Cabinet. I was intrigued by the ability that his wife (Jennifer) had to maintain a seemingly happy married life, while at the same time knowing and accepting the fact that her husband had a series of many rich mistresses, and regularly dined with two of them until his death.

It's a long book. If you are going to read it in bed, get the Kindle version - it's kinder on the wrists.