Michael Foot has spent a lifetime disagreeing with those in power, and, most of the time, being right. He first came to public attention in 1940 as the co-author of Guilty Men, a scathing polemic against appeasement, and his rhetorical skills, in print and in person, are unmatched by comparable political figures. Kenneth O. Morgan, historian and Labour peer, provides a rounded portrait of this intensely radical and intensely literary man.

Foot's ultimate victory over Benn was a victory for decency. And that is the golden thread through Foot’s life. While others shilly-shallied about Stalin's show trials, Foot denounced them from the first. In his early campaigns as Devonport's MP he was twice opposed by Randolph Churchill, who was nothing if not a lusty opponent. But he was an impossible man and at the end of each day his disgruntled Tory helpers would dump him on the pavement, glad to be rid of him. Foot and Jill Craigie would each evening pick him up, take him out to dinner and carefully deliver an inebriated Churchill to the station to catch his train. Later, when Churchill was sued for defamation, Foot volunteered to give evidence on his behalf though he knew it might cost him his job – and got him off. These actions and many others indicate a fundamental decency and generosity of spirit which is rare anywhere, let alone among politicians.

(LRB 26 April 2007)

HarperCollins | hardback 568 pp. |ISBN: 9780007178261