Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
Donoughue combines a brilliant mind with strong emotion and beliefs. Reading the extraordinary story of his rise from nowhere provides an insight into the latter which is more important with politicians than you think. If he was not an Irish catholic, he would be a very different man! It also demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of those who reach the top.
Your next book?
Well, Bernard Donoughue’s The Heat of the Kitchen, an autobiography by a former policy adviser to Prime Ministers Harold Wilson and James Callaghan (in the 1970s) complements Crosland. Lord Donoughue combines a brilliant mind with strong emotion and beliefs. Reading the extraordinary story of his rise from nowhere provides an insight into the latter which is more important with politicians than you think. If he was not an Irish Catholic, he would be a very different man! It also demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of those who reach the top – even the very top – of politics. Donoughue, like Crosland, writes like a dream.
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Lord David Lipsey is a journalist and Labour peer. He was adviser to British Prime Minister James Callaghan in the 1970s and a member of the Jenkins Committee on Electoral Reform, the Royal Commission on Long-Term Care of the Elderly and the Davies Panel on the BBC licence fee. His book The Secret Treasury was published in 2000. His racing novel Counter Coup is awaiting publication.
