Climbing the Bookshelves: The Autobiography of Shirley Williams

by Shirley Williams

The voice of a strong and passionate woman of luminous intelligence   The role of women in our society has changed out of all recognition. But it has changed least in the House of Commons. I want to describe those changes and the resistances to them through the magnifying glass of my own life, a life that coincides with our turbulent post-war history.  Shirley Williams was born to politics. As well as being influenced by her mother, Vera Brittian, her father George Caitlin, a leading political scientist, encouraged his daughter to have high ambitions for herself—including daring to climb the bookshelves in his library. Elected as MP for Hitchin in 1964, she was a member of the Wilson and Callaghan governments and was also the Secretary of State for Education.  As one of the "Gang of Four," Shirley Williams famously broke away from the Labour Party to found the SDP in 1981 and later supported its merger with the Liberal Party to form the Liberal Democrats. 

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Autobiography, Biography, Memoir

432 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

The Right Honourable Shirley Vivian Teresa Brittain Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby, Companion of Honour, Privy Counselor to Queen Elizabeth II, was a Labour Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister before becoming a co-founder of the more centrist Social Democratic Party in 1981. After this merged with the Liberal Democrats, she was made a life peer and served as the Leader of the Lib-Dems in the House of Lords from 2001 until her retirement in 2004.

Reviews

[Boadicea · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Shirl the Pearl" spends a lifetime in 20th century UK Politics-a memoir of public service by one of the most popular politicians of the century.

Shirley, named in honour of Charlotte Bronte's heroine, died earlier this year. She was, of course, Vera Brittain's daughter and I had just seen the film adaptation of "Testament of Youth" so I was tempted by this book. I'm not a political junkie usually but Shirley was a politician of unusual integrity and leaves behind a legacy of social investment, of which I think she can be proud.

She lived politics from the cradle to the grave. Her father, George Catlin, was a political scientist and failed Labour candidate and her first forays to political hustings were made in her pram. The house was full of talk and, in order to be heard, you had to be "a politician" so, at age 5, that's what she wanted to be!

Her mother was a full-time writer and the family breadwinner so her father had significant input to her upbringing, always supporting her fearless attempts, and encouraging her lifelong attempts at learning and social justice. Her mother was a worrier and a zealous pacifist who ostracised friends and fellow writers and showed little maternal affection. Her older brother was shy and introverted but immensely protective of Shirley and their childhood relationship was close.

Both were evacuated to the Massachusetts during the war to family friends and this period enhanced her resilience and free thought, experiencing a far more liberal educational system. She returned to a variety of educational establishments in wartime Britain in 1943, gaining a Scholarship to Oxford to study PPE, (Politics, Philosophy and Economics), which she tried hard to refuse! Ever the rebel, she joined the famous OUDS and the Labour Club to the extent that her studies seriously suffered!

Whilst in the States, she had been screen tested for the role of Velvet Brown in "National Velvet" missing out to Elizabeth Taylor. After the war she did an OUDS theatre tour acting "Cordelia" in a young Tony Richardson's production of "King Lear" one summer. She rose to become President of the OU Labour Club and honed her impressive debating skills.

She returned to the USA after completing her degree on a Fulbright Scholarship in 1952 but returned early to the UK to contest her first Parliamentary candidacy selection for the 1954 General Election, which was proved unsuccessful. She spent time as a farmhand milking cows, then on the factory floor of a boot polish factory as well as a waitress before going into journalism, initially for the Daily Mirror then the Financial Times, which she did not enjoy.

Her political activities enlarged to include the Fabian Society in the 50s and rose to General Secretary of this organisation, which allowed her to network extensively. On one occasion, she was courted assiduously by Robert Maxwell who was keen to purchase the Fabian library of political tracts as well as being an aspiring politician of the Labour caucus.

She married a moral philosopher, Bertrand Williams, in 1955 and accompanied him to Ghana for a semester teaching which would inform her enthusiasm for assistance with governance and educational activities in developing countries. Her only child, a daughter, was born in 1961 after experiencing several miscarriages which were clearly disheartening for her. He left her in 1970 and, she being a practising Catholic, struggled with this desertion thereafter aggravated by the Catholic Church's refusal to annul her marriage.

Elected in 1964 to the marginal constituency of Hitchin on the outskirts of London, she arrived to the Houses of Parliament with little fanfare but a camaraderie of cross-party woman MPs, which included the notorious Iron Lady herself, Margaret Thatcher. The gender divide was clearly maintained with the men disappearing off to network at their various exclusive Clubs whilst the women usually stayed home. Behaviour could be boorish at best but bad in lobbies when votes were being counted where bottom-pinching was not unknown! Fortunately, trial by stiletto caught the assailant after a good bit of teamwork!

Shirley certainly climbed the establishment rungs by dint of diplomacy, sheer hard work and an overall enthusiasm and interest in social justice. She served under successive Labour governments of Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan, working initially as PPS to the Minister of Health, Kenneth Robinson. 2 years later, she became a Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Labour where the Permanent Secretary refused to speak to her! In 1967, she was promoted to the Ministry of Education as a Minister as one of three.

To be continued/edited...

[Smiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this memoir is frank, reader-friendly and inspiring since it's written by a lady politician which is quite rare in any country in the world. One of the reasons is that politics has long been dominated by men rather than women. In ancient times, of course, they needed leadership, decision and valour from male soldiers, professionals and politicians. However, in our 20th century and beyond, we can see more and more such female counterparts emerge, get involved and take action in various fields. This is good news as well as interesting in relation to how and why these elite ladies have opted to work even ''where angels fear to thread" (from Milton, and E.M. Forster's novel title).

I've never known/read Shirley Williams (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley...) before, till last March, I came across this book in a bookstore in Bangkok. At its back cover, Polly Toynbee from Guardian wrote, "Few politicians are loved or even liked, and even fewer of those are women ... Shirley Williams is an exception" in which I found challenging and something as a literary guarantee. Therefore, I decided to have a copy and kept reading whenever I was free.

First of all, I found its fonts large enough and thus convenient for my eyesight. My sincere thanks are to those considerate publishing technicians at Virago Press in the UK. From its 398 content pages, 20 chapters + Epilogue, we like-minded readers may confess we may drop it somewhere provided that the prose and pace doesn't entice us to keep reading on and on. Indeed, the author has her own unique ways of making her narration interesting, informative and insightful. For instance, let me quote from her 'Epilogue' only as excerpts:

I now belong to the generation that evey year sees its ranks reduced. (p. 386)

To be a good politician in a democracy, you have to care for people and to be fascinatd by what makes them tick. (p. 389)

As a grandparent now, I rejoice in my grandchildren, my grandnephews and nieces, and pray they may be generous, understaning and wise. (p. 395)

In brief, find a copy to read and enjoy!

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read Testament of Youth and Friendship by Vera Brittain,(Shirley Willam's mother) many times, so the early part of this book was interesting to read form a different perspective. From her early twenties Williams was heavily involved in Britsh politics, so the rest of the book reads more like a politcal history of the 20th century, rather than a personal history. For this reason, like many autobiographies, was is left out or skimmed over, is sometimes more revealing than what has been left in. For these reasons I feel I've learned a lot from this book.

[Nicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw Shirley Williams at a Off The Shelf writing festival event a while back in Sheffield. Therefore, I have been determined to read this book for some time.

I've been acquainted with her mother's writing and pacifist views for along time so was interested to learn about Shirley's story.

I love the title of the book amply. named after her quite independent childhood.

Chapter one

I love Shirley's sense of humour throughout the book. In chapter one, she describes how she was named Shipley, not after the child film star, but after Charlotte Bronte's book. Then she goes on to say how she never cared for the name or the book, which she has never managed to read all through.

She describes her father with fondness She mentioned how she was allowed to climb the bookshelves, right up to the top ceiling. Her father's feminism was not an intellectual construct. Quite simply, he saw no reason to think that women were lesser beings than men.

Her father's mother, Edith Kate a supporter of the NUWSS, rebelled against the constraints of being a vicar's wife. She was widely read and was determined yo educate herself.

She describes her relationship with her mother has being rather remote. Her mother was the family's main breadwinner and was intensely as ambitious. This was quite remarkable in the 1930s. She then goes on to say that she was not widely liked and some of her friendships broke up BC because of her criticisms and convictions. She goes on to explain how some people mistakenly believed her mother was a lesbian because of her very close relationship with Winifred Holby.

Shirley was quite the tomboy and didn't share her mother's love of clothes. Her love of climbing in Sheffield made me smile has I can see the areas in my mind.

Shirley's awareness of the difference of opportunities for people in Britain shines through in the first chapter of the book. She mentions how comfortable middle-class England was unaware of life experiences of children, their housing, their patents and their aspirations.. Evacuation had a lot to do with radical change in public attitudes between pre and postwar society.

Chapter two

This chapter concentrates on Shirley's life in Britain during the Second World War. She describes the feeling in Minnesota of Europe being a wily, deceitful old bird. Britain was trying to drag the clean, decent, innocent country into war and should ng e resisted at any price. This situation change with the dramatic entry into the war of Japan. She mentions how Hitler as being an we embodiment of evil because there was no knowledge of the Holocaust yet and little was known about the Nazi persecutions of the Jews. Many Minnesotans were descended from Germans and Scandinavians so there was a strong sense of Germany BG being deluded rather than evil.

In Minnesota the real enemy was Japan. Thousands of Japanese Americans were interned throughout the war.

Conclusion: I don't think there are many politicians left like Shirley Williams so much honour and courage. She is so correct in her assessment of politics .... the creation of unequal societies are far less committed to democracy and the rule of law than are fairer ones.

In her final words: "Systematic briefing against colleagues and opportunistic distortion of facts can be effective political weapons. But they destroy the foundations of democratic civic life. Extremist parties of both right and left are strengthened by them. Citizens yearn for integrity. We should remind ourselves of the tragedy of the Weimar Republic after the First World War, when Germany's political leaders were denigrated and ridiculed to the point where they were destroyed along with the infant democracy they were trying to build". It's a shame that we cannot learn from history has we are heading towards a major crises.

However, she is an optimistic and believes that each challenge and each crisis evokes new ideas and new heroes. We definitely need some now has a crisis is upon us.

[Fiona Bromelow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Williams was of the same generation as my parents and I chose to read this because although there were obvious differences, they shared some of the same experiences. The book is rather long and a little too detailed but in general I enjoyed it. Williams accuses her father (who she obviously adored) of finding it easier to talk about politics than about his own emotions, and then she does exactly the same thing. I wanted to hear about her experiences returning to the British education system after spending some of the war in America as my father's life was heavily influenced by a similar experience. Williams does mention her own feelings but then goes on to discuss the Butler education act in detail. She gives less than one and a half paragraphs to her miscarriages, and three pages to the inner workings of the Fabian society in the run up to the 1959 general election. Perhaps though, that is the point. Sadly many women suffer miscarriages. Very few of them become government ministers.

I don't suppose that many people will read this unless they are really interested in the period or, like me, working their way through the biography section of their local library, but if, on looking at modern politics, you wonder "how did we get to this?", this book does provide some of the answers.

[Alison Pilkington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shirley Williams is someone I have been aware of for most of my adult life. Although her career began before 1974, which was the first year when I could vote, the fact that most of the events and people she was describing were things I lived through and names I recognised made it very interesting. To see behind the scenes and hear so much more about things I had lived was fascinating. For anyone who lived through these years of whatever political persuasion should read and absorb. For those younger ones read and recognise that things don’t change that much and you can always (and should) learn form the past

[Dylan Vieites Glennon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant.

[Susan Grimshaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written book by a delightful lady, full of information and recollections. It does however, obviously, contain a lot of politics which are at times a little tedious.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started well: Shirley Williams' early life was interesting and sometimes exciting (the beginning is also quite similar to some of Testament of Experience by Vera Brittain). However, when the book started to describe her political life, it became very dense and factual.

Quite a few of the paragraphs read as acknowledgements, and would only be of interest to the person being acknowledged. It seems as if Williams wanted to thank everyone she could remember by giving them a place in print, for example we are told about how helpful Williams' cleaner was – this is probably true, but it is out of place. Williams also name-drops quite a bit, as has been mentioned in other reviews.

I also felt, as the book continued, that in order to be interested, you had to have some previous knowledge about the politicians of the era, who are covered in some detail. It also would, I think, be enjoyed more by someone who remembers events such as the founding of the SDP (unlike me, as the vast majority of the book is about events before my birth).

However, the book is still interesting – if you want to know about Shirley Williams then this will be helpful.

[Sal Noel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I heard a review on the radio, or an interview and thought this would be an interesting book... So for some time,I scoured the book shelves in the local charity shops and after a couple years of looking without any luck, went and bought it from ebay.
It started well- her early life was interesting enough but then we hit university.
Now, for the first time in a very long time I decided my time was better spent in other pursuits. I rarely give up on a book, but it just became a list of name dropping and I lost interest. I was disappointed in myself and the author. If someone were to tell me it gets way better, I may give it another go- but well into my next batch of books...

[Paul Servini · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only had an abridged audio version available to me for this reading - although it was read by the great woman herself. This was enough to whet my appetite and I'd love to try and get hold of the full version. Highly interesting, full of insights into one of this country's greatest politicians.

[Katharineparker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have always had tremendous admiration for Shirley Williams and this book does not disappoint. Aside from the political shenanigans I am enjoying it also from the point of view that I am of similar age to Shirley Williams so there are many memories with which I can identify.

[Helen Watts · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating insight into the life of an amazing lady. I particularly enjoyed the earlier parts of the book in which Shirley describes her childhood. The things she had done by the age of 16 were quite astounding. Puts life today into perspective!

[Cel Jel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed getting another perspective on events. I could remember some of the news headlines and to get an insight from a different perspective was good.

[Karen Hough · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, any budding politician should read this.

[Aly Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting life because of her Mother. Finding it a bit of a struggle but factual political history always worth a read

[Clare Carr · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would. I've come to the conclusion that I just don't get politics.

[Nick Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

fascinating

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating insight into Shirley's life, the massive discrimination she faced in The House of Commons and the history of the Social Democrat Party.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good for the political schisms of the 1970s and 1980s. Lacking detail for more recent tomes, but a very entertaining writing style.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

An I nteresting life. The epilogue is prescient given today’s out of control globalisation, climate change, populism, dictatorship & the struggle for democracy at home & abroad. She nailed it.