Grimond: Towards the Sound of Gunfire

by Michael McManus

In the late 1940s and 50s, the Liberal Party seemed doomed to irrelevance. Its few MPs held their seats as a result of pacts to which Winston Churchill turned a blind eye. Its share of the vote was just 2.5%. Clement Davies, its leader at the time, in one of the bravest decisions he made, refused an offer of a merger from Churchill and chose to soldier on. However, it was Grimond, who picked up the mantle of leader after Davies' resignation and, in the face of seemingly insuperable odds, turned the fortunes of the Liberal Party around. When Grimond passed the torch on to his successor, Jeremy Thorpe, the Liberals were secure in their independence as the third force in British politics.

Genres: Politics, Biography, Nonfiction

470 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Michael McManus was responsible for researching, drafting and editing Sir Edward Heath's memoirs, The Course of My Life (1998). He is also the author of several books of his own, including two biographies: of the former Liberal leader Jo Grimond, Towards the Sound of Gunfire (2001); and of the actor Nicholas Courtney, Still Getting Away With It (2005). He has extensive political experience, having worked for three Conservative Prime Ministers; as a special adviser in three government departments; and as a political and strategy consultant. He ran the Press Complaints Commission 2012-2014. He is now a full-time writer, with a number of plays and a musical theatre piece at various stages of the production process.

Reviews

[Allan Heron · Rating 4 out of 5]

A substantial book on the life of Jo Grimond who can safely be said to be responsible for the survival and growth of the Liberal Party in second half of the twentieth century.

The book also has some useful appendices which considers policy and philosophical positions of Grimond in a way that wouldn't have been possible within a chronological narrative.

A genuine radical, Grimond would, I suspect, be shaking his head sadly at both the state of our country as well as the Liberal Democrats.