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Jeremy Thorpe by Michael Bloch
The story of Jeremy Thorpe's rapid rise and spectacular fall from grace is one of the most remarkable in British politics. When he became leader of the Liberal Party in 1967 at the age of just 37, he seemed destined for truly great things. But as his star steadily rose so his nemesis drew ever a time-bomb in the form of Norman Scott, a homosexual wastrel and sometime male model with whom Jeremy had formed an ill-advised relationship in the early 1960s. Scott's incessant boasts about their affair became increasingly embarrassing, and eventually led to a bizarre murder plot to shut him up for good.
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First published December 16, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 15, 2015
This is a fascinating biography of a politician who 'fell like Lucifer' to pinch a quotation. It describes his huge strengths and his equally huge weaknesses objectively and clearly. For me, Jeremy Thorpe was consistently on the side of the political angels but some of the financial short cuts he took are shocking. His downfall through the agency of Norman Scott aided and abetted by such horrors as Peter Bessell and his own personal short-comings is described in quite proper detail since this is what makes this well worth reading. His political achievements in moving the then Liberal party from the fringe of politics - despite the efforts of Jo Grimond to place Liberalism at the core of the radical centre - resonate today. This is particularly significant in current UK politics where the Lib Dems are back where they were in terms of MPs when he became leader.
Michael Bloch avoids sensation in his account which is well written and sensitive about both Jeremy Thorpe's sexuality and his long fight with Parkinson's Disease.
Michael Bloch avoids sensation in his account which is well written and sensitive about both Jeremy Thorpe's sexuality and his long fight with Parkinson's Disease.
December 21, 2021
A fascinating read on several levels. An interesting, very colourful character (J. T.) a combination of politician/actor/entertainer, so he had many of the skills for the greasy pole [no pun intended!] Good oversight of life in the UK, 1930s onwards, with the focus on politics and especially the Liberal party. A different kind of sleaze here, much more refined – very English!
J. T. is a character well suited to a Shakespeare tragedy – but he would have to have the best lines!
Well researched, enlightening and a good read.
PS Often think about the grafitti I read on a soho pub wall once - 'Vote Liberal or we'll shoot your dog'!
J. T. is a character well suited to a Shakespeare tragedy – but he would have to have the best lines!
Well researched, enlightening and a good read.
PS Often think about the grafitti I read on a soho pub wall once - 'Vote Liberal or we'll shoot your dog'!
January 8, 2015
It is the biography that British political anoraks have long awaited and which, sadly, can now only be published as its subject is no more.
Like Richard Nixon, Jeremy Thorpe remains a fascinating, if flawed, figure to those who remember him, long after many of his more lauded contemporaries have passed into obscurity.
Charismatic, saturnine, ebullient, suave, Thorpe cut a raffish figure when compared to the grey, serious, safe men that were his fellow party leaders, Wilson and Heath.
After being elected leader in 1967, Thorpe took the Liberal Party on a sometimes rocky electoral journey, culminating in it gaining nigh on 20% of the popular vote in the general election of February 1974.
But at the moment of his greatest triumph, with his party holding the balance of power amid the expectation that he himself could, after reaching a deal to support a Conservative or Labour government, enter the Cabinet, perhaps as Home Secretary, something inside Jeremy Thorpe snapped. No deal was forthcoming and the party had to wait another 36 years to join, as Liberal Democrats, a coalition.
Never an intellectual and having a tenuous grasp of economic theory, nevertheless Jeremy Thorpe was a good old-fashioned populist politician, who successfully guided his party between the financial might of Tory supporters and Labour's union paymasters. He argued for greater devolution, for closer ties with Europe, and for a grand coalition, a national government like throne that had broken the Liberals in 1931, to tackle wha he saw as Britain's structural problems.
But, beyond this, the question has, for so long, been "Why did Thorpe turn down his greatest political opportunity?"
Well, as Michael Bloch's magisterial, elegant and fair-minded biography makes clear, the impediments, beyond the political, to Thorpe's crowning glory were many.
First there was his sexuality. In today's more civilised age, it is easy to forget the stigma attached to any hint of gayness in years gone by. And Jeremy Thorpe, Bloch reveals, pursued many homosexual relationships, some longstanding, others fleeting. Both Wilson and Heath were warned by the security service that Thorpe's love life could hold him open to blackmail, thus ending any prospect of him holding any position involving matters of national security.
Then there were his friendships with people of dubious character, including the former MP Peter Bessell and, crucially, a young man Thorpe met in 1961, Norman Scott.
Described by the judge at Thorpe's trial in 1979 as "a parasite" the highly-strung Scott pursued Thorpe for years while threatening to expose what was probably an emotional and, then illegal, three-year relationship between them that had commenced in 1961.
The affair would eventually end with Thorpe, and three others, being acquitted of conspiracy to murder Scott, after he was allegedly threatened, and his dog Rinka shot, on a Devonshire moor side in October 1975.
The end of the trial was, effectively, the end of Thorpe's political career, a downfall as much to do with the way he has dealt with money as much as his sexuality. It was, as the prosecuting counsel at his trial put it, a “tragedy of truly Greek and Shakespearean proportions”.
A major theme of Bloch's book is that of Thorpe's, at times reckless, risk-taking: personally, politically and financially. It was as if he relished the secret baggage, the never-ceasing fears, which threatened him for so long.
All politicians are actors and Jeremy Thorpe was one of the best. But his was a role which combined tragedy and farce and with the leading character destroying himself in the second act.
Like Richard Nixon, Jeremy Thorpe remains a fascinating, if flawed, figure to those who remember him, long after many of his more lauded contemporaries have passed into obscurity.
Charismatic, saturnine, ebullient, suave, Thorpe cut a raffish figure when compared to the grey, serious, safe men that were his fellow party leaders, Wilson and Heath.
After being elected leader in 1967, Thorpe took the Liberal Party on a sometimes rocky electoral journey, culminating in it gaining nigh on 20% of the popular vote in the general election of February 1974.
But at the moment of his greatest triumph, with his party holding the balance of power amid the expectation that he himself could, after reaching a deal to support a Conservative or Labour government, enter the Cabinet, perhaps as Home Secretary, something inside Jeremy Thorpe snapped. No deal was forthcoming and the party had to wait another 36 years to join, as Liberal Democrats, a coalition.
Never an intellectual and having a tenuous grasp of economic theory, nevertheless Jeremy Thorpe was a good old-fashioned populist politician, who successfully guided his party between the financial might of Tory supporters and Labour's union paymasters. He argued for greater devolution, for closer ties with Europe, and for a grand coalition, a national government like throne that had broken the Liberals in 1931, to tackle wha he saw as Britain's structural problems.
But, beyond this, the question has, for so long, been "Why did Thorpe turn down his greatest political opportunity?"
Well, as Michael Bloch's magisterial, elegant and fair-minded biography makes clear, the impediments, beyond the political, to Thorpe's crowning glory were many.
First there was his sexuality. In today's more civilised age, it is easy to forget the stigma attached to any hint of gayness in years gone by. And Jeremy Thorpe, Bloch reveals, pursued many homosexual relationships, some longstanding, others fleeting. Both Wilson and Heath were warned by the security service that Thorpe's love life could hold him open to blackmail, thus ending any prospect of him holding any position involving matters of national security.
Then there were his friendships with people of dubious character, including the former MP Peter Bessell and, crucially, a young man Thorpe met in 1961, Norman Scott.
Described by the judge at Thorpe's trial in 1979 as "a parasite" the highly-strung Scott pursued Thorpe for years while threatening to expose what was probably an emotional and, then illegal, three-year relationship between them that had commenced in 1961.
The affair would eventually end with Thorpe, and three others, being acquitted of conspiracy to murder Scott, after he was allegedly threatened, and his dog Rinka shot, on a Devonshire moor side in October 1975.
The end of the trial was, effectively, the end of Thorpe's political career, a downfall as much to do with the way he has dealt with money as much as his sexuality. It was, as the prosecuting counsel at his trial put it, a “tragedy of truly Greek and Shakespearean proportions”.
A major theme of Bloch's book is that of Thorpe's, at times reckless, risk-taking: personally, politically and financially. It was as if he relished the secret baggage, the never-ceasing fears, which threatened him for so long.
All politicians are actors and Jeremy Thorpe was one of the best. But his was a role which combined tragedy and farce and with the leading character destroying himself in the second act.
May 8, 2015
A fascinating but overblown life, in a fascinating but overblown book. 550 pages could have been condensed to 400 odd pages and given a truer picture of the subject. I retain a strong fondness for Jeremy Thorpe but this book needed severe editing.
June 5, 2017
If you think the contemporary UK Liberal Democratic Party is a ramshackle collection of oddballs, eccentrics, and amateurs, you have never encountered its predecessor party, the Liberals, as they stood in the 1950s to 1970s. Never quite sure what they stood for in the grand scheme of British and world politics, still bathing in the reflected light of their 19th-early 20th century heyday, this fading club of often brilliant semi-aristocrats, chancers, dodgy businessmen, sexual fugitives and the downright deluded brought a degree of comic relief to the rather grim two-party system of corporate consensus that dominated the UK's parliamentary system at the time. Presiding over them, from the late 60s till his spectacular downfall in 1976, their leader Jeremy Thorpe was one of their most talented activists and a widely-admired figure on all sides of British politics.
The old newspaper obituarist's codeword, 'flamboyant', meaning gay, could have been coined for Thorpe. He loved Edwardian suits, and once turned up for a Remembrance Day service at the Cenotaph wearing full morning dress and a top hat. He was indeed gay, but despite the hard and principled work he carried out on ensuring the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967, he could never bring himself to state this publicly, and it was the fear of making public a brief affair he had had with a mentally unstable blackmailer called Norman Scott which led, despite numerous narrow escapes, to his criminal trial for attempting to procure Scott's murder.
He was in fact acquitted, since the evidence was partial, complex and largely circumstantial, and every witness - including Thorpe and his alleged accomplices, as well as Scott himself - demonstrably lied about their involvement in aspects of the case. But it does seem very likely that Scott was indeed the victim of a highly amateurish attempt to organise his assassination, by a group of chancers and fantasists paid by Thorpe, which went wrong after the first-time hit man shot Scott's dog and then had his antique handgun jam before he could finish the job. Going back through the detail of Scott's largely successful attempts to intimidate, emotionally coerce, and extort money from his target over some 15 years, it's difficult to blame Thorpe for wanting to get rid of him.
Because of this frankly bizarre episode, which cannot but have undermined Thorpe's effectiveness as an MP and party leader and which has come to dominate his memory (he died in 2014) it's hard not to see everything about the subject of this biography as leading up to, or ensuing from, the Scott Affair. Michael Bloch has, however, produced a rounded and affectionate portrait of one of Parliament's most charismatic and recognisable figures of the late 20th century. Thorpe was an expert communicator, witty and fluent, and popular among most of his colleagues in the House. He also did well among young people, who liked his flair and his radical language - he was a lifelong campaigner for race equality, for gay rights, and for electoral reform. Had he been prepared to compromise his individuality and join one of the major parties he would undoubtedly have been an asset to it, and very likely achieved Cabinet office. But he wasn't, and he didn't. There are very few like him left in Parliament, and I can't help feeling that it is poorer for that.
The old newspaper obituarist's codeword, 'flamboyant', meaning gay, could have been coined for Thorpe. He loved Edwardian suits, and once turned up for a Remembrance Day service at the Cenotaph wearing full morning dress and a top hat. He was indeed gay, but despite the hard and principled work he carried out on ensuring the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967, he could never bring himself to state this publicly, and it was the fear of making public a brief affair he had had with a mentally unstable blackmailer called Norman Scott which led, despite numerous narrow escapes, to his criminal trial for attempting to procure Scott's murder.
He was in fact acquitted, since the evidence was partial, complex and largely circumstantial, and every witness - including Thorpe and his alleged accomplices, as well as Scott himself - demonstrably lied about their involvement in aspects of the case. But it does seem very likely that Scott was indeed the victim of a highly amateurish attempt to organise his assassination, by a group of chancers and fantasists paid by Thorpe, which went wrong after the first-time hit man shot Scott's dog and then had his antique handgun jam before he could finish the job. Going back through the detail of Scott's largely successful attempts to intimidate, emotionally coerce, and extort money from his target over some 15 years, it's difficult to blame Thorpe for wanting to get rid of him.
Because of this frankly bizarre episode, which cannot but have undermined Thorpe's effectiveness as an MP and party leader and which has come to dominate his memory (he died in 2014) it's hard not to see everything about the subject of this biography as leading up to, or ensuing from, the Scott Affair. Michael Bloch has, however, produced a rounded and affectionate portrait of one of Parliament's most charismatic and recognisable figures of the late 20th century. Thorpe was an expert communicator, witty and fluent, and popular among most of his colleagues in the House. He also did well among young people, who liked his flair and his radical language - he was a lifelong campaigner for race equality, for gay rights, and for electoral reform. Had he been prepared to compromise his individuality and join one of the major parties he would undoubtedly have been an asset to it, and very likely achieved Cabinet office. But he wasn't, and he didn't. There are very few like him left in Parliament, and I can't help feeling that it is poorer for that.
April 30, 2016
A reasonably intriguing political tale - one that I was not aware of the central details in sufficient depth - that suffered at times from a more journalistic approach to the tale of hubris and ultimate tragedy. At the outset, as Thorpe climbs to prominence, the author seems a little too keen to tee up the personal web of half truths and downright lies that eventually entrap Thorpe as he attempts to keep his homosexuality out of the spotlight. Too many chapters ended with what could almost pass for cliffhangers - a slightly annoying stylistic touch. There is also little attempt to really explain why Thorpe behaved the way he did, why he thought speculating even amongst friends about getting rid of Norman scott was acceptable behaviour - beyond a regular reference to loving drama there is little work done to try and explain why such a prominent national figure was prepared to risk it all in the way he did. Were it not for the equally incredible positions of the other central characters in the aborted conspiracy - as well as a hinted establishment support network including trial judges and then pm Wilson - his story might have taken an even more tragic turn. An interesting read but an opportunity not fully or effectively examined
March 29, 2016
when you remember events from your childhood, they get mangled. In my case,Jeremy Thorpe went from the exotic campaigner arriving on a beach by hovercraft to the seedy defendant in the conspiracy trial that ended his career, in this excellent sympathetic biography, Bloch records the mixture of charm and chicanery that defined Thorpe's desperate career which revived the Liberals from obscurity. Bloch's record is damming as he shows that Thorpe consistently lied and distracted his energies into tackling the vile blackmailer Norman Scott whose only success was the vindictive destruction of Thorpe. well-written, well-judged Bloch captures the humanity and human frailty of Thorpe in a way that sets the standard for future political biography as Thorpe emerges with sympathy but little honour.
February 28, 2020
One of those 'if it wasn't true you couldn't make it up' stories with a great supporting cast that includes characters like police officer Proven Sharpe and landlady Mrs Friendly. Some other reviews have complained about the book's length. Ridiculously easy to read, I whizzed through it. Bloch is a fine writer and I will definitely be looking at what else he has published. This is a full biography and doesn't just cover the Norman Scott affair and trial. Definitely more sympathetic towards Thorpe than the other book I have read about him, it is scathing about Scott. I just felt sorry for the dogs, Mrs Tish and Rinka. My only real criticism is that the last 30 years of Thorpe's life is covered in about 15 pages.
May 14, 2017
Very well written. A clear picture of Thorpe's life that's informative, not gossipy. The book is also useful as a sketch of how the Liberal Party came back from near extinction.
June 25, 2022
The sensational Jeremy Thorpe trial gripped the nation in 1979. As a schoolboy at the time, I was immature enough to find it very diverting, not least because of the possibilities for ribbing my kindly and decent form master, who was a fully paid up member of the Liberal Party. I accepted the acquittal verdict, as I think most of us did, whilst still thinking there was something both ribald and fishy about the whole episode, not least the famous phrase in Thorpe’s letter to his former lover – “Bunnies can and will go to France.” When you think about it, that isn’t a very scandalous or revealing phrase, although it was considered the most damning in all the trial correspondence. But it certainly provided us with a lot of material for adolescent mockery.
This is a wholly absorbing narrative and an exceptionally interesting book. The author admits that his assessment of Thorpe underwent a change as he researched and wrote this book. Mine did too. Being a closet homosexual at a time when it was illegal is one thing, paying someone to murder an ex lover is quite another. Having read this and thought a great deal about it, I am now in no doubt that Thorpe’s acquittal was a shocking miscarriage of justice, and that he was guilty as charged. Furthermore, I don’t think Norman Scott was the only ex lover he tried to have bumped off – there was another, and with him he probably succeeded, as Bloch discusses.
I will never think quite the same way about that sad faced, pensive, rather handsome, immaculately dressed figure with his splendid headgear (the trilby was already going out of fashion then, though it hasn’t stopped me wearing one even up to the present day). He was, for all his great talent, an entitled monster with an overweening ego, and a deeply sinister and unscrupulous man. Thank goodness he never got his hands on the levers of power.
This is a wholly absorbing narrative and an exceptionally interesting book. The author admits that his assessment of Thorpe underwent a change as he researched and wrote this book. Mine did too. Being a closet homosexual at a time when it was illegal is one thing, paying someone to murder an ex lover is quite another. Having read this and thought a great deal about it, I am now in no doubt that Thorpe’s acquittal was a shocking miscarriage of justice, and that he was guilty as charged. Furthermore, I don’t think Norman Scott was the only ex lover he tried to have bumped off – there was another, and with him he probably succeeded, as Bloch discusses.
I will never think quite the same way about that sad faced, pensive, rather handsome, immaculately dressed figure with his splendid headgear (the trilby was already going out of fashion then, though it hasn’t stopped me wearing one even up to the present day). He was, for all his great talent, an entitled monster with an overweening ego, and a deeply sinister and unscrupulous man. Thank goodness he never got his hands on the levers of power.
September 21, 2017
Oh dear...that was a slog... It's taken me ages to read this book. It's well written but at 555 pages just too long for me and lost my interest.
I enjoyed the chapters about his family background and his friends but there was so much politics to get through. But I can hardly complain given Jeremy Thorpe’s leading role in politics for much of the 50s, 60s and 70s. I just found it hard work and with so many people involved with skulduggery going on left, right and centre I couldn't keep up. If I’d read it nearer to the time it happened I’d have been better off as I might have remembered the people in real life and related to the material more. But a lot of this was happening before I was born and in my childhood so I think it would appeal more to the 70 years plus market.
I thought I'd get more interested when I got to the trial bit but by then I was so confused about who was on trial and why (my own fault for doing so much skim reading) that I ended up skimming even that. I think it's well written but it's just not for me. I appreciate it was researched and written twenty years before it was published (because of an agreement to wait until Jeremy Thorpe had died) but that left a bad taste as I read about Cyril Smith, Clement Freud and quite a few other politicians who in the last few years have been found, or suspected, to be involved in very dubious activities with minors.
It's a shame as I think Michael Bloch has done the most incredible job in researching this book as well as writing it very clearly. My meagre 3 stars is just because I cannot personally say I 'liked' it. I think the research and writing style deserves 5 stars.
I enjoyed the chapters about his family background and his friends but there was so much politics to get through. But I can hardly complain given Jeremy Thorpe’s leading role in politics for much of the 50s, 60s and 70s. I just found it hard work and with so many people involved with skulduggery going on left, right and centre I couldn't keep up. If I’d read it nearer to the time it happened I’d have been better off as I might have remembered the people in real life and related to the material more. But a lot of this was happening before I was born and in my childhood so I think it would appeal more to the 70 years plus market.
I thought I'd get more interested when I got to the trial bit but by then I was so confused about who was on trial and why (my own fault for doing so much skim reading) that I ended up skimming even that. I think it's well written but it's just not for me. I appreciate it was researched and written twenty years before it was published (because of an agreement to wait until Jeremy Thorpe had died) but that left a bad taste as I read about Cyril Smith, Clement Freud and quite a few other politicians who in the last few years have been found, or suspected, to be involved in very dubious activities with minors.
It's a shame as I think Michael Bloch has done the most incredible job in researching this book as well as writing it very clearly. My meagre 3 stars is just because I cannot personally say I 'liked' it. I think the research and writing style deserves 5 stars.
July 8, 2020
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book from an historical perspective and also from my interest in the political character Jeremy Thorpe. As a boy I had always paid attention to news and the political characters and this continues today now many years later. I had always liked watching Jeremy Thorpe as he was an extrovert character and it was good to see him as the Liberal Leader. I remember the scandal and his trial well and followed its progress. The book is an accurate account of his life and of how his character was particularly in the time leading up to his trial. It does not judge him in any way and neither would I......and it is clear that he was a very loyal man to his second wife and his life long secretary. In politics he was well respected as an MP and his constituents stood by him. He was found not guilty at The Old Bailey of the conspiracy to murder charge but the scandal finished his political career. It was so sad to read how Parkinson’s Disease took away so much of his skills as a speaker and a flamboyant character but the book as I say does not judge him relative to his character and homosexuality which it must be remembered was illegal way back then. This is a great biography and an honest one and I was so happy to read and learn more about Jeremy Thorpe.
October 14, 2021
An absolute doorstop of a book, incredibly dense and detailed. I think I’ve finally learned that I’m not that into biography but prefer history of events, as the whole “and then his second cousin did this and he went to university with this person” stuff bores me half to death.
It suffers a little from the author being a bit too lenient on a man he clearly admired, and a bit too condemning of one who was nearly assassinated. It also skirts around the queer history which would have filled in the gaps - it briefly mentions the legalisation of homosexuality and that Thorpe worked on a committee to do with this but there’s no insight into how he might not have tried to murder someone for outing him if society hadn’t been so homophobic.
It suffers a little from the author being a bit too lenient on a man he clearly admired, and a bit too condemning of one who was nearly assassinated. It also skirts around the queer history which would have filled in the gaps - it briefly mentions the legalisation of homosexuality and that Thorpe worked on a committee to do with this but there’s no insight into how he might not have tried to murder someone for outing him if society hadn’t been so homophobic.
January 3, 2025
A fascinating biography, well researched and engagingly written, maintaining a more objective view than some other texts I've encountered on this subject.
The subject matter holds up well as a fascinating insight into the duality that exists in us all and covers one of the more interesting political scandals of the late twentieth century.
The subject matter holds up well as a fascinating insight into the duality that exists in us all and covers one of the more interesting political scandals of the late twentieth century.
December 8, 2016
Took me a long time to read this book. Hard going, only because of the intensity and facts which come at you thick and fast.
The author does an excellent job of keeping the pace in an otherwise dry subject. The history is rich and well defined.
An incredible true story told impeccably.
The author does an excellent job of keeping the pace in an otherwise dry subject. The history is rich and well defined.
An incredible true story told impeccably.
August 1, 2016
When I joined the SDP in 1981 Jeremy Thorpe was almost a figure from the past although I was 24 and his trial had been only two years previous. I had been aware of his impact on the 1974 elections but apart from the following scandal and subsequent trial I had no deeper understanding of the man.
This excellent book remedies that situation and he turns out to be a fascinating individual. His life covers achievement, recklessness, farce, love and tragedy - sometimes, it seems, all at once.
The book was withheld from publication during Thorpe's lifetime but this was a request of his that the author respected, rather than at legal behest.
It's easy to be sympathetic to Thorpe's plight but equally easy to see all the collective errors of judgement made over the years. His clearly charismatic personality drives both reactions - as such, it's hard to see his story ending any other way.
This excellent book remedies that situation and he turns out to be a fascinating individual. His life covers achievement, recklessness, farce, love and tragedy - sometimes, it seems, all at once.
The book was withheld from publication during Thorpe's lifetime but this was a request of his that the author respected, rather than at legal behest.
It's easy to be sympathetic to Thorpe's plight but equally easy to see all the collective errors of judgement made over the years. His clearly charismatic personality drives both reactions - as such, it's hard to see his story ending any other way.
March 22, 2015
I remember the events well, and Jeremy Thorpe as a politician. His book is excellent, and made sense of those events though long afterwards. It had to wait for Jeremy Thorpe's death to be published, but still... A good account a flawed and fascinating person and political career.
February 2, 2022
A really interesting read of an intelligent but highly flawed human being. I thought the author's treatment of him was fair and well put together even for those of us that remembered the main events.
January 2, 2016
I agree with one reviewer on here it's about 150 Pages too long but that said it's a very user friendly compelling portrait of an interesting man of contradictions.
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