What do you think?
Rate this book
Friends and Rivals: Crosland, Jenkins and Healey
In the 1976 Labour Party leadership election following Harold Wilson's surprise resignation as Prime Minister, the then Foreign Secretary Jim Callaghan was Wilson's favourite to succeed him. The main candidate of the Left was Michael Foot. The three most prominent standard bearers of the modernizing tendency inside the Party were Roy Jenkins, Denis Healey and Tony Crosland. All three had been exact contemporaries at Oxford University and each had more in common than separated them. Yet they could not get together and sort things out between them - and Callaghan won. Giles Radice's comparative biography of this group is an analysis of how the combined overall achievement of the three amounts to less than it might have been - how friendship and mutual rivalry, despite individual eminence and brilliance, are corrosive and damaging forces.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
22 people want to read
About the author
Giles Radice
144 books2 followersGiles Heneage Radice, Baron Radice, PC (born 4 October 1936) is a Labour member of the House of Lords. He was previously a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1973 to 2001.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 30, 2021
Anthony Crosland, Roy Jenkins and Denis Healey all had the promise for high-office and indeed were all thought of as future leaders of the Labour Party. All became senior ministers and played significant roles in Labour, British and European politics, yet none achieved the highest office of prime minister.
Giles Radice, himself a Labour MP between 1973 and 2001, and now as Baron Radice in the House of Lords as a life peer, has written a quite superb account of these three men as the books title suggests both friends and rivals that charts their careers into death (Crosland) and retirement (Jenkins and Healy) - the book was published in 2002.
Not only does the book cover their lives from education and military service during WWII - Crosland served as a paratrooper, Healey with the Royal Artillery and as a beach master at Anzio whilst Jenkins was breaking codes at Bletchley - it covers their entry into politics and parliament, and the support they received from Hugh Gaitskell (Labour leader 1955 until his untimely death in 1963).
The story progresses to service in Government and their successes, and indeed failures throughout the Wilson first term in Government. Later we see them develop and serve in opposition and in Wilson's second administration before a further term in opposition and the Callaghan government of 1976-79. These periods cover some of the most challenging and fascinating period of modern British history with Europe (as ever looming large), explosive industrial relations, educational reform, and defence changes and arguments on nuclear capability and withdrawal east of Suez, alongside the cold war, the OPEC crisis and global slowdowns and recessions that saw Britain seek IMF bailouts and political parties and society struggle to meet and adapt these challenges.
The book also places the three men in the context of militant Labour, the Lib-Lab pact, the apogee of Tony Benn and the crisis under Michael Foot to the creation of the SDP.
Lost leadership elections, rivalry and alliances and friendships, plans and rued decisions this book describes them in readable but fulfilling detail. As a stand-alone volume it is excellent, and as a biographical primer for each man it also serves the reader well.
At the book's close we see the three men through the lens of time as significant, thoughtful and influential politicians for Labour and British politics and are left wondering what might have been for each.
Highly recommended. My copy is a Little, Brown first edition with 376 pages and 16 pages of black and white high quality photos. An index and healthy list of sources and further reading is also included.
Giles Radice, himself a Labour MP between 1973 and 2001, and now as Baron Radice in the House of Lords as a life peer, has written a quite superb account of these three men as the books title suggests both friends and rivals that charts their careers into death (Crosland) and retirement (Jenkins and Healy) - the book was published in 2002.
Not only does the book cover their lives from education and military service during WWII - Crosland served as a paratrooper, Healey with the Royal Artillery and as a beach master at Anzio whilst Jenkins was breaking codes at Bletchley - it covers their entry into politics and parliament, and the support they received from Hugh Gaitskell (Labour leader 1955 until his untimely death in 1963).
The story progresses to service in Government and their successes, and indeed failures throughout the Wilson first term in Government. Later we see them develop and serve in opposition and in Wilson's second administration before a further term in opposition and the Callaghan government of 1976-79. These periods cover some of the most challenging and fascinating period of modern British history with Europe (as ever looming large), explosive industrial relations, educational reform, and defence changes and arguments on nuclear capability and withdrawal east of Suez, alongside the cold war, the OPEC crisis and global slowdowns and recessions that saw Britain seek IMF bailouts and political parties and society struggle to meet and adapt these challenges.
The book also places the three men in the context of militant Labour, the Lib-Lab pact, the apogee of Tony Benn and the crisis under Michael Foot to the creation of the SDP.
Lost leadership elections, rivalry and alliances and friendships, plans and rued decisions this book describes them in readable but fulfilling detail. As a stand-alone volume it is excellent, and as a biographical primer for each man it also serves the reader well.
At the book's close we see the three men through the lens of time as significant, thoughtful and influential politicians for Labour and British politics and are left wondering what might have been for each.
Highly recommended. My copy is a Little, Brown first edition with 376 pages and 16 pages of black and white high quality photos. An index and healthy list of sources and further reading is also included.
May 15, 2025
hot take the only people reading this book are political nerds and overachieving immigrants, which explains why I did (am also seeing a play based on these white dudes tonight)
January 3, 2025
Such a fantastic and enthralling read about the conflicting personalities of the Wilson/Callaghan cabinets especially on the right-wing of the party in the post-Gaitskell era. Giles Radice has crafted a brilliant and colourful narrative from the inside of these events. One of the lines near the end of the book where Radice considers how the late Hugh Gaitskell would look on the state of affairs between his two trusted friends and advisors, Jenkins and Crosland, and his colleague, Healey. One defeated for the Labour leadership by the hard left Bennites, one leading a new party, and one, unfortunately, dead. Jenkins and Crosland's intricate relationship throughout the decades is prone to fluctuate but never waver. Crosland being Jenkins' "most exciting friend of [his] life", Jenkins also notes with austerity "You and I could destroy eachother." On the other hand, the relationship between Healey and Jenkins had always been a rivalry of sorts, with Healey's 'one upmanship' and Jenkins' "desire to be the best" conflicting ever since their academic days in Oxford.
Giles Radice also importantly reflects on how the failure of the three men to cooperate together effected the success of the revisionist movement, and perhaps paved the way for the downfall of the party under Micheal Foot, and the rise of the hard left.
Giles Radice also importantly reflects on how the failure of the three men to cooperate together effected the success of the revisionist movement, and perhaps paved the way for the downfall of the party under Micheal Foot, and the rise of the hard left.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews