STEVEN ANDREW is moved beyond words by a historical account of mining in Britain made from the words of the miners themselves
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Stonehouse: Cabinet Minister, Fraudster, Spy
Labour Party high-flier's downfall a bathetic tale of misjudgement and greed
PRIDE BEFORE FALL: John Stonehouse (on the right) with the Queen at the opening of the National Postal Museum
CAILEAN MCBRIDE welcomes a refreshing and timely study of the way officialdom creates structures that exclude LGBT+ rights and humanity
The bard mourns the loss of comrades and troubadours, and looks for consolation with Black Country Jess
CHRIS MOSS relishes the painting and the life story of a self-taught working-class artist from Warrington
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a star-studded adaptation of Ibsen’s play that is devoid of believable humanity
GORDON PARSONS is fascinated by a unique dream journal collected by a Jewish journalist in Nazi Berlin
Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade, Parthenope, Where Dragons Live and Thunderbolts* reviewed by MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE
FROM humble beginnings, John Stonehouse became a rising star in the Labour Party and a cabinet minister in Harold Wilson’s 1964 government, only to be brought crashing down as a result of his own hubris.
His working-class family, active in the Co-operative movement, were staunch socialists and their eldest son John also became a Co-operative activist. After a short spell in the RAF during the war, he gained a degree in economics and politics at LSE.
In 1957, aged 32, he became MP for Wednesbury, the youngest MP at the time and in 1968 was appointed postmaster general and joined Wilson’s cabinet. A tall and personable man, he was well- liked and respected in the Labour Party and, with his soft-left politics, was seen by a number of pundits as a potential prime minister.
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