William Hague, 2004
Who better to write a biography of that most precocious prime minister, William Pitt, than that most precocious of Tories, William Hague, who was in the cabinet by the age of 34? That, of course, is nothing compared with Pitt’s record: an MP at 21, chancellor of the exchequer at 23 and prime minister a year later – a position he held for 19 of the next 22 years. And he had some big problems on his plate: the madness of King George, the fallout from the French revolution and the rise of Napoleon. A fluent, serious piece of work by one of our most talented politicians Photograph: The Gallery Collection/Corbis
John Campbell, 2009
Not strictly a biography, but a meticulously researched and beautifully written account of eight great political feuds, which brings to life much of the political history of the past 200 years. To those who protest that politics is about ideas not personalities, the author responds, “ideas prosper only through the flawed men and women who champion them.” Feuds range from Pitt versus Fox to Blair versus Brown, and include Disraeli and Gladstone, Lloyd George and Asquith, Bevan and Gaitskell, Heath and Thatcher. A joy to read Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/PA
John Colville, 2004
Colville was Churchill’s private secretary for most of the war. Two thoughts strike one on reading his diaries. First, that just about everyone who governed us in those days – politicians, diplomats, military top brass, senior civil servants – was a toff (Colville was son of a viscount). Second, how laid-back government was – despite the war. His entry for 7 May 1940, the day of the Norway debate which brought down the government, begins: “Rode at Richmond before breakfast under cloudless skies…” Photograph: Fox Photos/Getty Images
Tony Benn, 1994
One of the great curiosities of recent years has been the transformation of Tony Benn from a national bogeyman to national treasure. Benn wrote nine volumes of diaries and this is perhaps the best. Not least for the light it sheds on his somewhat eccentric family and on that distant era of Labour politics, the 1950s, when Bevanite fought Gaitskellite while the Tories got on with governing. Most moving of all, a letter from his much loved older brother, Michael, shortly before he was killed in action Photograph: Murdo Macleod
Denis Healy, 1989
Denis Healey was a politician with hinterland – a distinguished war record and a love of music. He also had the satisfaction of holding two major portfolios (defence and chancellor of the exchequer). As chancellor, he was persuaded to go cap in hand to the IMF for a loan in exchange for a commitment to spending cuts and an unrealistic wage policy, which led to the Winter of Discontent and ushered in Thatcherism. We were assured there was no alternative, but buried in his memoirs – at page 381 – is an admission that the IMF loan was not necessary after all Photograph: PA
Margaret Thatcher, 1993
Know thy enemy. A surprisingly good read for those who are broadminded enough to want to know what motivated the Iron Lady. She sets out with clarity both her philosophy and her contempt for the Tory wets: “[They] see the task of the Conservatives as one of retreating gracefully before the left’s inevitable advance.” She is not without humour. This is her account of her dismissal from the cabinet of Tory grandee Christopher Soames: “I got the distinct impression that he felt the natural order of things was being violated and that he was, in effect, being dismissed by his housemaid” Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Woodrow Wyatt, 1998-2000
A greedy, arrogant Thatcher worshipper, constantly in the company of the mega‑rich, it is hard to believe this ghastly man sat as a Labour MP from 1945 to 1970. His diaries are of interest because they illuminate a world that flourished during Thatcher’s reign. He is constantly on the phone to her and to Rupert Murdoch. His other great heroine is the Queen Mother whose indiscretions he records: “She is… very pleased with what I have written about South Africa. She thinks it is awful how the BBC and the media misrepresent everything [PW] Botha is trying to do” Photograph: Steve Back/Rex Features
Alan Clark, 1993
“Malicious, lecherous, self-pitying, and…enormous fun,” was the verdict of fellow Tory MP Julian Critchley. The first volume (1983-92) is the one that matters. Chiefly significant for its account of the fall of Thatcher, but full of wonderful vignettes and spiced with hints of his scandalous private life. Not every diarist can claim to have seduced three women from the same family. Incongruously, he was a lover of animals, attending protests against live exports and refusing to endorse the import of bearskins from Canada until overruled by Thatcher Photograph: Rex Features
John Major, 1999
I’ve always had a soft spot for John Major, a decent one-nation Tory leading a not very nice party after the Thatcher era. His life story is truly extraordinary, leaving school with just three O-levels only to be prime minister by the age of 47. His autobiography proved a surprising success, in part because few blamed him for his party’s landslide defeat in 1999. It contains a wonderful line about his excitement, as a young man, on attending one of his first political meetings addressed by a Tory grandee: “Twenty-five years later I made him a minister in my government” Photograph: Nick Rogers/Rex Features
Lord Moran, 1966
Moran was Churchill’s doctor from 1940 until the great man’s death in 1965. The publication of Churchill’s diaries just a year after he died provoked huge controversy. Not only was Moran condemned for breaching medical ethics, but inaccuracies led to questions about the diaries’ value as a historical document. Yet Moran’s account remains a uniquely intimate portrait of one of the greatest statesmen of the 20th century Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images
