British politics can sometimes feel more like a tragicomic novel than real life. But what kinds of literature do our leaders themselves turn to for inspiration? Last week, we found out that Keir Starmer doesn’t have a favourite novel or poem. We already knew that Rishi Sunak can’t get enough of Jilly Cooper. Ahead of the country going to the polls on Thursday, we asked other key figures from the last two decades of British politics about the books that shaped their views. Several of them refined their leadership styles by reading the biographies and writings of their political heroes. When Mhairi Black read Tony Benn’s Letters to My Grandchildren, it felt like discovering a new band for the first time. Nicola Sturgeon turned to Doris Kearns Goodwin’s portrait of Abraham Lincoln during tough periods as first minister, particularly through the pandemic. When Rory Stewart read a recent biography of Lloyd George by Damian Collins, he felt “very conscious of how far [he] fell short of this example of leadership”. Others were inspired by novelists – Diane Abbott puts her feminist politics partly down to Toni Morrison and Alice Walker – or philosophers. You can read all their choices here. What makes a political book a winner? The MP-to-memoirist pipeline is in full flow as ever, producing huge bestsellers and flops in equal measure. Stewart’s memoir, Politics on the Edge, has shifted close to a quarter of a million copies since its September publication, according to Nielsen BookData. The book gives “a candid view on the challenges of being an MP and remains very popular” with customers, Waterstones’ nonfiction buyer John Cotterill told Bookmarks. Meanwhile, Liz Truss’s April memoir entered the bestseller list in 70th place with 2,228 copies sold in its first week – but she can take solace in the first-week sales for John Major’s My Autobiography (5,415), John Prescott’s Pulling No Punches (1,202) and David Blunkett’s The Blunkett Tapes (769). There has been a “huge” surge in pre-orders for Boris Johnson’s memoir, Unleashed, to be published in October, according to Cotterill, “reflecting the enduring appeal of stories from inside Downing Street”. The success of Nadine Dorries’ The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson, reaching nearly 30,000 sales since its November publication – almost double that of Alastair Campbell’s January book But What Can I Do? – may be something of a harbinger for Johnson’s sales. US political memoirs have also made a splash this side of the pond – Becoming, by Michelle Obama, has been the top-performing politics book of the past 10 years, selling more than 860,000 copies since its 2018 release, while nearly 200,000 readers bought copies of Barack Obama’s A Promised Land. A second branch of political books that British readers have lapped up over the past few years might be classed as “diagnostic”. Books such as How They Broke Britain by James O’Brien and How Westminster Works … and Why It Doesn’t by Ian Dunt “offer powerful insights into contemporary politics and continue to be bestsellers,” Cotterill said. The author of one such book, Danny Dorling, who wrote Shattered Nation, told Bookmarks that for him, “the best political books are written many years, if not decades after the events they describe”, citing American economist Kenneth Galbraith’s 1955 book The Great Crash, about the stock market collapse of 1929. He also appreciates “modern-day biographies of MPs that are long dead, where fear of libel or hurting feelings is no longer a great consideration”, such as geographer Gerry Kearns’s biography of the Conservative and Unionist MP Halford Mackinder. “I dislike autobiographies, as there is too much self-deception,” Dorling said. “And even the most candid contemporary book on politics is still stuck in its era.” He prefers political fiction “as it is usually more honest”, recommending A Very British Coup by Chris Mullin, one of the 11 politicos we asked about their literary inspirations. |