Herbert Morrison

With a Foreword by his grandson, Peter Mandelson, this book tells the inspiring story of how 'the chirpy cockney sparrow' and young socialist agitator from Lambeth rose to rule London as Britain's most famous city boss and then, nationally, shaped the Labour Party's policies and directed its successful electoral strategies. In a succession of important Cabinet posts, he shared the catastrophe of Ramsay MacDonald's 1931 Government, was Churchill's inspired choice to fight the German blitz throughout the war, managed Labour's great post-1945 reconstruction programme and ended his career overwhelmed by problems and seemingly inexplicable failures as Foreign Secretary. As Peter Mandelson says in his Foreword:'Morrison is one of Labour's forgotten heroes...the quintessential political organiser...Writing this Foreword nearly four years into what I hope and believe will be the first term of a long period of Labour government, this is the essential Morrison maxim we must never ignore: delivery and renewal must go hand in hand. That Labour had finally learned the lessons of his own life would give my grandfather great joy. And for me it would b his finest memorial.'