The Conservatives - A History

The only up-to-date, single-volume history of the Conservative Party available

Astute, opinionated and unsentimental, Harris makes a robust and entertaining guide to the party's history.

Robin Harris combines a career of working for the party with the qualifications of a historian. He also writes beautifully, with a perilous sharpness. His account is highly entertaining.

A marvel of concision, lucidity and scholarship, with penetrating things to say about Peel, Disraeli, Churchill and the rest. His book can be read for pleasure as well as instruction.

Highly readable, with sparkling portraits of the leading figures, and the author's acerbic observations and pithy judgments, even when one does not agree with them, are always thought-provoking and sometimes pointed enough to make one laugh out loud...this is a good book. I am glad that it was written. And I'm glad that I read it.

My expectations for this book were high; but Dr. Harris has exceeded them. This book is genuine history written with real authority...finely written and highly readable, with an undercurrent of dry wit running through its narrative.

Harris writes well and with considerable force.

This well-researched, highly readable and occasionally highly witty account should become the new standard history of the Tory Party, and required reading for all MPs.

Robin Harris began to work for the Conservative Party in 1978, becoming Director of the Conservative Research Department, a government political adviser and a member of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Policy Unit. When Mrs Thatcher left Downing Street, so did he, going on to assist her with books and speeches. In recent years, he has written an authoritative history of the city state of Dubrovnik and an acclaimed biography of the French statesman Talleyrand. He is the author of Not For Turning, the Sunday Times bestselling biography of Margaret Thatcher. He lives in London.

The history of the Conservative party has, extraordinarily, rarely been written in a single volume for the general reader. There are academic multi-volume accounts and a multitude of smaller books with limited historical scope. But now, Robin Harris, Margaret Thatcher's speechwriter and party insider, has produced this authoritative but lively history book which tells the whole story and fills a gaping hole in Britain's historiographical record. 
 
Taking as his starting point the larger than life personalities of the Conservative Party's leaders and prime ministers since its inception, Robin Harris's book also analyses the interconnected themes and issues which have dominated Conservative politics over the years. The careers of Peel, Disraeli, Salisbury, Baldwin, Chamberlain, Churchill, Eden, Macmillan, Heath, Thatcher, Major, Hague and Cameron together amount to an alternative history of Britain since the early nineteenth century. 
 
This landmark book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in history or politics, or anyone who has ever wondered how Britain came to be the nation it is today.

Robin Harris

No-holds-barred, well-written... contains the most authoritative account of her life after leaving office... a dramatic account.

[a] lively and accessible insider's account

After all the eulogies, it is refreshing to read about an odd, driven, believable person – rather than some abstract national saviour or demon... Harris is like a long-faithful courtier freed by a monarch's death to speak the truth about them.

Remarkable... A vivid and concise study in adversity, triumph and treachery.

Readable and well-informed... detailed and fascinating

A pacy and entertaining book... well-sourced and packed with anecdotes. A first rate potted history.

Irresistible reading ... the brilliance of Harris's gift for narrative has not deserted him.

Insightful and very readable. Its strength lies in its personal approach.

[Not for Turning] marries first-hand accounts from the subject with Mr Harris's own recollections as a key aide during the second half of her premiership. An enjoyable read.

The Complete Life of Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher is one of the most iconic politicians of the twentieth century. With the possible exception of Winston Churchill, no other Prime Minister has had such an impact on modern British history. Like it or not, her radical social and economic policies have made Britain the country it is today. Without Margaret Thatcher there could have been no New Labour, no Tony Blair and no David Cameron. 
 
Now Robin Harris, for many years Thatcher's speechwriter, trusted adviser and the draftsman of two volumes of her autobiography, has written the defining book about this indomitable woman. He tells her extraordinary life story, from humble beginnings above her father's grocer's shop in Grantham, her early days as one of the first women in Westminster who became known as 'Thatcher milk-snatcher' during her days in the Ministry for Education and then as Prime Minister. We follow her through the 'Winter of Discontent', the tribulations of the miners' strike and the Falklands War. And Harris writes a stunning account of her exit from power and tells of her life after number 10.

Not for Turning

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Robin Harris

Praise for Not for Turning

The political biography of the decade

No-holds-barred, well-written... contains the most authoritative account of her life after leaving office... a dramatic account.

[a] lively and accessible insider's account

The political biography of the decade

No-holds-barred, well-written... contains the most authoritative account of her life after leaving office... a dramatic account.

[a] lively and accessible insider's account

The political biography of the decade

No-holds-barred, well-written... contains the most authoritative account of her life after leaving office... a dramatic account.

[a] lively and accessible insider's account

Books by Robin Harris

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