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‘Hennessy is the zoologist who went to live in the safari park – he’s the pre-eminent historian of postwar government who got himself a seat in the House of Lords, enabling him to study his subjects close up – and as a result these interviews are unusually informed and revealing.’
The Guardian
‘Peter Hennessy, the political historian and former Times journalist, once said that the main attraction of becoming a peer was so that he could have lunch with his ‘exhibits’. His latest book, Reflections, collects conversations with those exhibits.’
The Times
REVIEWS ‘Peter Hennessy always combines entertaining verve with immense depth of knowledge and that shines through in this collection.’ ‘The art of the interview is to caress, coax and cajole your subject into revealing more about themselves than they ever planned to. Peter Hennessy does just that with verve and panache.’ ‘This is an unusual book. It takes the reader inside the heads of some of the towering politicians of our age. Compelling stuff.’ ‘Peter Hennessy’s conversations with leading politicians of our time have reinvented the political interview. Probing, yet sympathetic, thought-provoking and at times moving, they provide a rare glimpse behind the public face and an insight into the background, inspirations and motivations of these key figures.’ ‘Peter Hennessy is the perfect companion for a walk through the politics that made our time, and those are conversations that tell so much. Sharp, touching and wise.’ ‘A true professional, and worthy of reading and rereading for all those who want to know what makes front-line politicians tick.’ ‘The historian’, wrote E.L. Doctorow, ‘will tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like.’ In Reflections: Conversations with Politicians sees Peter Hennessy and Robert Shepherd combine both with the art of the interviewee, a craft at once sensitive and intrusive. Reflections collects the best interviews from the BBC Radio 4 series of the same name, each more of an interim biography of the interviewee than an excursion into the combat zone with the occasional burst of now-it-can-be-told revelation. Reflections includes interviews with such political heavyweights as John Major, Clare Short, Nigel Lawson, David Owen, Margaret Beckett, David Steel, Roy Hattersley, Neil Kinnock, Norman Tebbit, Jack Straw and Shirley Williams. PETER HENNESSY, one of Britain’s best-known historians, is Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary, University of London. He is the author of Never Again: Britain 1945-51 (winner of the NCR and Duff Cooper Prizes), the bestselling The Prime Minister, The Secret State: Preparing For The Worst 1945-2010, and is the series editor of the Haus Curiosities series. He was made an independent crossbench life peer in 2010. ROBERT SHEPHERD is a radio and television producer whose credits include BBC Radio 4’s The Prime Ministers and a fly-on-the wall documentary about the Foreign Office for Channel 4. He has written political biographies and histories, including Westminster: A Biography. Also by these authors, Reflections (Volume 2) and The Complete Reflections.
Martha Kearney
Nick Robinson
Robert Preston
Carolyn Quinn
James Naughtie
Liberator
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| ISBN | 9781910376485 |
| Pages | 289 |
