PARTY ANIMALS

by David Aaronovitch

SHORTLISTED FOR THE SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST FIRST BIOGRAPHY AWARD

David Aaronovitch grew up in Communist Great Britain – a Britain hidden from view for most, but for those on the inside it was a life filled with picket lines, militant trade unions, solidarity rallies for foreign Communists, the Red Army Choir, copies of the Daily Worker, all underpinned by a quiet love of the Soviet Union.

In this idiosyncratic blend of memoir, history and biography, David Aaronovitch uncovers the story of his family’s life by picking through letters, diaries and secret service files, which in turn unleash vivid childhood memories of a lost and idealistic world. Party Animals is about personal life and political life becoming tragically intertwined, and one family’s search for meaning in the twentieth century.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Biography, History, Memoir, Russia, Historical

320 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2012

About the author

David Aaronovitch is an award-winning journalist who has worked in radio, television, and newspapers in the United Kingdom since the early 1980s. His first book, Paddling to Jerusalem, won the Madoc prize for travel literature in 2001. He is also the recipient of the George Orwell Prize for political journalism. He writes a regular column for The Times (UK). He lives in north London with his wife and three daughters.

Reviews

[Jo Chambers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating biography of a man making sense of an unconventional background. Both parents were long standing members of the small Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), and his father Sam was a leading member. This was similar to being born into a religious sect - a strict viewpoint and a way of being separate to the world around him. The young David's heroes were Yuri Gagarin and Lenin, rather than the Beatles or Elvis, he was not allowed to join the Cub Scouts (too imperialistic), or read the Beano comic (published by a firm that would not allow trade unions). The Soviet Union under Stalin was paradise, the United States devilish capitalists. His parents lives consisted of meetings, demos and their whole lives were consumed by their politics.
The book combines family memories with a history of the CPGB, which was formed in reaction to the horrors of the first world war, the hardships of its aftermath and inspired by the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, which offered the promise of a socialist utopia, where there would be true equality, good standard of living for all workers and above all, peace.
Then of course, it all went wrong. In 1956, Stalin's Russia invaded Hungary and it soon became apparent that the Soviet Union was not such a paradise. The CPGB, like other communist parties in the west, had to face up to the fact that Stalin was a brutal paranoid dictator who killed anyone who he thought was against him. Millions had died.
Some in the CPGB left the party at that point, and on further revelations. Others, lie the Aaaronovitch family stuck it out and tried to justify the madness in Russia, On a more personal level, the author's mother Lavender likewise 'stuck it out' in an unhappy marriage. To leave the Party, to leave the marriage, would be unthinkable as it would mean denying everything that had been worked for over a life time. Eventually, in the late 1980s, the CPGB was disbanded following the fall of communism in the USSR and European countries.
It seems to me that communism, like religion, tries to make sense of a chaotic world, to impose order over chaos, to give a meaning. Both communism and religion offer the promise of utopia, but sadly both have led to huge bloodshed when their leaders become dogmatic.
This was a fascinating book which combined a fascinating personal history with history & politics. Five stars from me!

[Louise Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most interesting books I've read in a long while. I only bought it because I really like the work of the author's brother, Ben Aaronovitch, and thought it might be interesting to know more about him. I had heard him speak once and found him quite fascinating.

The author grew up in post WWII London as a "red diaper" baby, that is, a child of communist parents. Although the book is for the most part a personal story, it gives great insight into the lives of people who live wholly committed to a philosophy. The author often draws parallels between his experience of growing up and that of people who were raised as traditional Catholics.

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of this book is the depiction of how and why some people cling to their beliefs even when they are shown to be unworkable and/or wrong. The author is no longer a communist but apparently continues to support causes such as anti-racism and feminism which formed part of the philosophy of his parents and their interpretation of communism.

I'm very glad that I read this book and will remember it for a long time.

[Thistledown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating - the weirdness of families and a history of the British Communist Party.

[Hugo Collingridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating account of life growing up with Communist parents. Having spent some time on the far left many years ago myself, albeit as a Trotskyite not a Stalinist, I recognised a lot of the details about Party life (with a capital P). More importantly, I felt a twinge of unpleasant recognition when he talked about self deception and what makes people ignore obvious truths.

[Simon Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strangley disatisfying family account which is 2/3s filled out with potted histories of the CPGB, the British left and Stalin's USSR. Aaronovitch might be brave in his family revelations but they don't add up to the grand unifying explanation for human frailty that he concludes with. Awkward.

[Peter Geyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never knew any communists growing up, although there were occasional local individuals mentioned in the news, and of course there was the Cold War.

David Aaronovitch is a couple of years younger than me, raised within a communist family in another country with some similarities to mine, although also significant differences. When his book came out, I read a review which made it sound interesting, although a purchase came much later.

There are a number of overlapping themes here: firstly, the complex nature of the family itself and where everybody came from; secondly, the belief system itself and how people within the system dealt with its content and the various ideological crises e.g. Stalinism; Soviet invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia and even where they went on holidays; thirdly how all-encompassing this ideology was. In many respects it appears to have kept the family together.

Aaronovitch focuses on his parents and their different roles, also writing in general about the history of the Communist Party in Britain and various kinds of members and ex-members, which makes for interesting reading.

One of these people was Christopher Hill, the Marxian historian of 17th Century England, some of whose books I read and who I met once as a student. The mid-17th century was a time of Millennarian cults wanting to see political and social change and/or the return of Jesus of Nazareth and Hill appeared to take a secular view of these events.

Reading this book made me think of the similarity of the cult-like behaviours and some of the beliefs to these groups of the past.There are obvious examples today of course.

The end of this book has the author reporting on his delving into secret files, discussing his parents with people who knew them, and also an archive of his mother's diaries. This is less well-written than the rest of the book, understandably so I think, as there are various insights and information that help him understand more about these people, their milieu and the reality of the family to which he belonged, not without difficulty.

I greatly enjoyed reading this. Aaronovitch for the most part writes clearly, with some wit and humour, and his story is clearly presented.I felt invited into the family, albeit as an observer, and he asks many interesting and pertinent questions.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968 Aaronovitch writes, "I was disappointed and disillusioned at an age almost too early for illusions". Being brought up in a Communist household - a very strict one at that - gives the author an idiosyncratic perspective on the British Communist Party and its adherents. Looming large is the Party's relationship and take on the Soviet Union. The book goes back to the founding of the Party and looks at the political , economic and cultural questions facing it. How can members (and this includes his parents) when confronted with the Soviet show trials and purges of the 1930s, the Soviet-Nazi Pact, the invasion of Hungary and Czechoslovakia among many other atrocities justify and remain loyal to the Party (of course not all did, and there were numerous schisms).
The book is much more than a simple history of the Communist Party. It is an in-depth look at the author's family; the dynamics their politics had on the family unit; the naive nature of much of their political beliefs; their stupidity and at times bravery. Eric Hobsbawm is quoted, " If you'd suffered for the cause, you thought more highly of it" "The greater the sacrifice, the greater the commitment". "A lifetime commitment and a total commitment". And all for "a search for meaning in a meaningless world".
In the process we see the maturation of an individual. Above all, it is a very human story and one that impinges on many aspects of this reader's own upbringing in a Glasgow working class family in the late 50s early 60s.

[bp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating,enlightening and highly enjoyable somewhat anthropological look at that quite recent yet also long gone tribe;The British Communists.

Told through the story of one family from the viewpoint of someone semi detached and thus having an insiders experience and an outsiders incomprehension: or maybe its the other way around!
Small Behaviours and big beliefs are made sense of in their wider context.

I was left feeling nostalgic for a simpler age when all we had to worry about was Armageddon! Ironically whilst we all feared nuclear war it would seem the nuclear family was what was causing the real damage.

Super and original book anyone over 40 will enjoy &appreciate

[Marin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was curious to know the inner life of a communist party in this country. The historical part was mildly interesting and the family story was sad, parallel lives, not much understanding between parents or loving parenting.
The unconditional adherence to the cause was, as I suspected, the same as that of religious cult followers and there is an interesting analysis made by the author. Sad lives trapped in a bubble.
Even today there is a small communist following – I remember seeing a leftist festival in Lincoln Inn several years ago. I did not have time then to check their stalls. Now I did but it felt like a lost time for a lost cause.

[Michael Macdonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

This fabulous thoughtful book that draws general lessons about life and politics from the author's unusual upbringing in a communist family in North London. With care and tact, Aaronovitch explores the environment of the CPGB and the strange world its members created. The final part's exploration or the Party's self-delusion about the Sivet Union, the tensions in his family and the way politics reflects our personalities is facinating and moving.

[Gruia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aaronovitch is great at psychological introspection and this book offers some insights on why people stick to certain beliefs. He wrote it for himself though, as there is not much to be gained from perusing someone else's intricate family tree or in analyzing the neuroses of an uninteresting and rather annoying 1960's housewife.

[Malcolm Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've had this on my to read list for ages and eventually got round to it! I like David Aaronovitch's style and have read him in the Times, however I found parts, mainly Party History, of this book rather Turgid. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the parts about him growing up in a Communist household and also I learned quite a lot about Communism in general. Absorbing.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Pages 1-200 are an entertaining, yet more or less conventional, story of growing up Communist.

Pages 200-300 are very different, in a good way. He tells a much richer story than I ever expected.

[Siobhan Markwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found the politics more interesting than the family anecdotes, though some were funny and others melancholy. Wished there'd been more about thinking and arguments about the topics of the day. Well-written and thoughtful but just needed more political analysis.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book about how the author's family sat orthogonal to society in their political views. Particularly enjoyed the last section.

[Ideas Sleep Furiously · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best memoirs I've ever read. So beautifully written. David allows you a wonderful glimpse of what life in the British Communist Party meant for people's day-to-day lives.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best autobiographies I've read. Great style. Funny and interesting. I'm not particularly political but it managed to engage me all the way through.

[Samuel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is an account of the history the Communist Party of Great Britain, as written by a journalist whose parents both were heavily involved.
Again, it's written by a journalist, and perhaps that's why the book is so compartmentalized. It seems different bits are for meant for different readers.
First it describes the parents though without any psychological depth. Then follows party member name dropping. There's a description of childhood (a time which still bothers the author tremenduously despite extensive psychoanalysis). Then comes a more personal description of the parents psychological make-up, the father's philandering and the mother's denial.

The book then tries to explain the psychology behind why so many party members denied the atrocities made in the name of communism. It turns out that the more you have suffered and sacrificed for a cause, the greater the commitment. (That way having your beliefs attacked may work to strengthen them.)
And why they believed in the first place? The psychology is basically that of christianity: "There had to be one Father – Stalin, or the Party – who was steadfast and utterly reliable, and in whom you placed your trust."

I would have preferred if the author hadn't separated the stories but made them one and the same: the story of two complex individuals one of whom found the party a vehicle to reach out into the world while the other found the party a way to shield oneself from it.

[Antenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Born in the 1950s, journalist David Aaronovitch grew up in a bubble of North London Communist Party activists. This book may be of particular interest to someone of about the same age who can recall the impacts of Yuri Gargarin’s space orbits or the Prague Spring, but with events seen oddly through the different end of a telescope. The young David was not allowed to read comics like Beano published by D.C. Thomson, a non-unionised exploiter of labour; he couldn’t be a Cub like his best friend since that would have meant monthly prayers for the Queen and Baden Powell. On the plus side there seems to have been a good deal of jolly socialising and when David’s father Sam fell victim to internal politicking and failed to get promoted as expected in the Party because he was judged “too ambitious”, his contacts with one of the few Communist academics in England enabled him to study for a degree at Balliol College Oxford with Ewan McColl and Peggy Seeger singing at his leaving party.

In an interesting parallel with the radicalism of present day second generation migrants, Sam’s Jewish parents arrived in London just before the passing of the 1906 Aliens Act which restricted right of entry, and the grinding poverty and inequality suffered as a child in the Cable Street area triggered his lifelong passion for the Communist cause.

The book falls into three parts. The first is an account of David’s family life from a political viewpoint up to his own resignation from the Communist Party because membership was deemed incompatible with his BBC journalist role.

The second part deals with the interesting ethical dilemmas on which he came to reflect in later life. This is when he discovered that, although the bugging of comrades’ families by MI5 was often ludicrous and pointless, some had, for instance, helped the atomic spy Fuchs to pass information to the Russians. He was also forced to accept that his own father, so often praised for his brilliance and charm, had in fact attempted to restrict freedom of expression by writers in the name of “political correctness” and advocated Stalinist “socialist realism” to counter the threat of American capitalist culture. This brings the author to speculate how repressive a British Communist Party would have been if it had ever gained power, particularly with so many members’ unquestioning reverence for Stalin as “ the great leader”. David Aaronovitch describes vividly how Communist families and friendships were torn apart when disillusionment drove some to quit the Party over Krushchev’s destruction of Stalin’s reputation in 1956, closely followed by Soviet suppression of the Hungarian Uprising.

The third part reworks the family history to expose on a personal level the hidden truth, which the author only laid bare after his parents’ death. Family psychotherapy sessions recorded under pseudonyms by the famous therapist Skynner, and probably instigated by David’s mother Lavender to remedy his difficult behaviour, in fact revealed the dysfunctional nature of his parents’ marriage. Much of his mother Lavender’s harshness towards him appears to have been displacement activity, not just for her stressful life but also deep unhappiness over Sam’s infidelity. The extracts from her diary and intimate details of marital deception, even violence, may stem from the author’s journalistic necessity to provide supporting evidence but I can understand why the manner and intimate detail of his revelations angered some readers, since they made me feel forced into reluctant voyeurism. What began as a wry take on an unusual family ends up as an exercise in public therapy for the author. This book reminds me of Maxim Leo’s “Red Love” analysing an East Germany family, also thought provoking.

[Jake Goretzki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly readable and very original. A find blend of, well, the personal and the political.

I like how it was put together: three parts and, in the end, a kind of mystery solved. We start with the child's perspective on politics and family (largely unquestioning at that age); follow with the story of the party and its grim contortions amid the slow, grinding putrefaction of the USSR and end with a reveal of the dynamics of the Aaronovitch family and the unhappy reality of a bad marriage. It will have been hugely cathartic to write, I suspect.

What a fascinating world of small coincidences: that Sam Aaronvitch is the culture man in ‘The Golden Notebook’; that the family were analysed in a book by Robin Skinner (of John Cleese pop-psychology collaboration). That David’s parents knew the awful Michael Rosen’s folks (Rosen is still a communist and a total disingenuous, antisemite-salving fuckstick, mind).

At a time, too, when the flushed turds have floated back to the surface and genuine Stalinists like Seumas Milne (and the miserable Corbyn himself) are overseeing the death of the Labour party (a paradox, being that they should never have been in it), the book is a useful reminder of their habits. Their politics is a religion, really. It is friendship and community. There's a strong sense of apostasy, duty and loyalty - in the cause of leaflets and placards. They don't really believe they'll do anything - this is just church and hope. And (as the Doctor's Plot reminded us) they’re fertile ground for antisemites and cranks.

Aaronovitch’s mum went to Russia once. Like Seumas Milne in Moscow or like Corbyn in Cuba, they’re too credulous and stupid to have ever imagined talking to a real local or not taking the Intourist guide’s angle at face value. They were beguiled by the romance of it all. I studied Russian and the building was stuffed with similar such impressionable fuckwits. When the USSR ended, I was mildly puzzled, but pleased. Now I look back on it as a rotten, murderous enterprise and am appalled that anyone thought otherwise.

I suppose we should sort of feel sorry for them. They could be a folk club or a rambling society - and in that respect one could almost like them. Trouble is, they were always cool about state murder in the cause of The Rapture. Aaronovitch’s growing distaste for them and his breakaway - thoughtful empathy and analysis aside - feels like genuine progress. Fine work.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing - this book scratches the surface of some very important historical threads and almost broaches some of the crucial issues about the nature of the "borderless Left" but never realy gets to grips with the underlying issues. The bizarre failure of the intelligentsia in the West to hold the broad Left movement to the same moral standards when it comes to association with causes and events that deserve unreserved criticism is never adequately addressed. Support for the Soviet invasion of Eastern European countries experimenting with democracy and for viscous crackpot dictators who murdered countless people is never a disqualification in this "borderless" paradigm were people who support them are never held to account. Aaronovitch reminds us how people like Angela Davis supported the Soviet suppression of democracy in this manner and yet never asks why they are never held to account for these extreme views. I did find the insight into the Communist Party GB's campaign against "American Comics" fascinating, I was denied much of the pleasure of reading comics as a child by conservative parents for quasi-religious reasons that I strongly rebelled against but had no idea that the Puritans of the hard Left had this literature genre in their sights!

[Julian Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd rather taken against Aaronovitch since his support for the Iraq War, and this impression had solidified in various cantankerous encounters at literary festivals. However, he shows a more vulnerable side to himself in this book, and also some clues as to where his anger might be coming from. It gives a very thorough account of the British Communist Party, both as a force and as it was lived by individuals. A lot of the material was familiar to me from my own researches into the Party for my second novel. The book also takes the more traditionally confessional route of examining the damaging dynamics of the writer's family. But the most interesting part is the examination of the notion of the political as personal; the ways in which our psyches shape our political opinions, the notion that we arrive at them through clear sighted reason being rather delusional. His mother denied his father's affairs as she denied the crimes of Stalin; his father was so desperate to escape his East End family he fled to the family of Communism. It certainly made me think more about my own political allegiances and where they might come from.

[Wendy Greenberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked parts of this book and thought other sections completely over-written. A mix of family memoir and history of British Communist party. The family depiction was a mix of memory, diaries and events from which the author created a view of his family that makes sense of his upbringing and, his anger. For me it seemed like the life he constructed for his radical (and inattentive) parents (Lavender & Sam) was created to fit his young and adolesecent recollections and, although there are fixed points, I thought the role of biographer on their behalf was rather bizarre and almost like putting words in their mouths. The fact that the personal was political and obsessive for them was obvious and didn't need re-hashing in endless guises.

The history of the party was fascinating and fits with his view that his parents were deluded but whilst I enjoyed the read, felt that a large edit could have been done. Less is more and all that..#MemoirReview #family

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

An affectionate, but uncompromising, memoir of its author's relationship with his parents, both dedicated members of the British Communist Party.

What's most interesting and skillful about this account is the way in which Aaronovitch manages to avoid condemnation of his mother and father, throughout the layers of his discovery of their lives, from quasi-religious Party members, to colluders in some of the more appalling incidents of post-WW2 European history, to probably unwitting manipulators of their politics to cover deep personal unhappiness.

Their children did not come undamaged out of this, and David's thoughtful and sympathetic account is a testimony to the human kindness and individual tolerance that one suspects may have been denied him as a child.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is more of a memoir about the author's family than how it was like to grow up in a family of communists.

Most of the character details are specific to his family than to members of the communist party. I'm sure another child of communists would write a completely different book.

The book is very well written and personal, but wasn't exactly what I was looking for.

Things I didn't like were lots of name-dropping of people I am not familiar with and the effects of historical events on the communist party without giving much detail about the events for people unfamiliar.

[George Barnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this intimate and humane account of growing up in a postwar communist family. Aaronovitch is about 1yr older than me. I grew up in a profoundly religious, non conformist family (the Brethren) and there are great similarities. Duty, faithfulness, belonging and the sense of treachery towards someone who left. Denial of obvious truths in my order to maintain the movement also featured in both. I liked the author's conclusion that loss and fear of loss informs politics and love. There is always a need to be kind.

[timothy m sharp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very subtle and intelligent take on why people became - and, crucially, remained - Communists in Twentieth Century Britain, as seen through the prism of the author's family.

[Richard Lapper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent account of life inside the British Communist Party during the 1960s, 1970s and 80s.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Splendid!

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining, informative and thought-provoking.