Roy Hattersley – författare

Diaries celebrating a dog''s joy at owning a human, by the most famous dog in Britain.Buster has written these diaries himself - whenever he could remember where he hid the manuscript in his garden. In it he lays bear the truth of how The Man has held Buster back, pretending to protect fur and feathers. Buster''s last book was an instant bestseller and, outrageously, The Man took all the credit. To add insult to injury, there were no extra biscuits. Worse, The Man forced Buster to eat low-fat ones, while he himself continued to eat lots of chocolate ginger nuts.Despite The Man''s best efforts, Buster still gets into lots of scrapes, and, although his sight and hearing are failing somewhat, he still wants to ''go courting'' - especially in springtime. Buster remains unaware of what happened that day at the vet''s, and no one will explain it to him, but they continue to allude to something. On a visit to Ireland a gentleman tapped his nose and said to The Man, ''You can''t fool me. I''ve worked it out. You wrote the book.'' Buster was so upset by this vile calumny that he wanted to give the gentleman a good nip. Then he remembered the words of someone called Robert Kennedy who The Man goes on about: ''Don''t get angry. Get even.'' And he has. And this time it''s personal.As Buster says, ''No more Mr Nice Dog.''

An uneducated youth, William Booth left home in 1849 at the age of twenty to preach the gospel for the New Methodist Connexion. Six years later he founded a new religious movement which succeeded to such a degree that the Salvation Army (which it became) is now a worldwide operation with massive membership.But that is only part of Booth''s importance and heritage. In many ways his story is also that of the Victorian poor, as he and his wife Catherine made it their lives'' work to battle against the poverty and deprivation which were endemic in the mid- to late 1800s. Indeed, it was Catherine who, although a chronic invalid, inspired the Army''s social policy and attitude to female authority. Her campaign against child prostitution resulted in the age of consent being raised and it was Catherine who, dying of cancer, encouraged William to clear the slums -- In Darkest England, The Way Out. Roy Hattersley''s masterful dual biography is not just the story of two fascinating lives but a portrait of an integral part of our history.

It was not until he was dead and I was forty that I realised my father was once in Holy Orders,'' Roy Hattersley tells us in the opening pages of A YORKSHIRE BOYHOOD; so setting the tone for an elegant, continually surprising book.A somewhat precocious only child, Roy grew up surrounded by protective, ever-anxious adults, equally determined to expose him to books and to shield him from germs -- second-hand books were decontaminated by a sharp session in the oven. Uncle Ernest, a timber merchant''s clerk celebrated for his skill at ''fretwork and the manipulation of Indian clubs''; a ten-year feud with the next-door neighbours; unwavering devotion to Sheffield Wednesday - all the pleasures and pangs of northern working-class childhood are magnificently evoked as Roy Hattersley takes us through the hardships of the Thirties and the Blitz; and into the 1940s, the 11-plus examination and Grammar School.Completely updated, A YORKSHIRE BOYHOOD is an autobiographical essay of unusual wit, eloquence and candour.

A Welshman among the English, a nonconformist among Anglicans and a self-made man in the patrician corridors of power, David Lloyd George, the last Liberal Prime Minister of Great Britain, was the founding father of the Welfare State and was as great a peacetime leader as Churchill was in war. In this fascinating biography of an authentic radical, Roy Hattersley charts the great reforms - the first old age pension, sick pay and unemployment benefit - of which Lloyd George was architect, and also sheds light on the complexities of a man who was both a tireless champion of the poor, and a restless philanderer who was addicted to living dangerously.

The story of the Cavendish family and the first eight Dukes of Devonshire is the story of England. From 1381 – when Sir John Cavendish, Lord Chief Justice of England, was killed during the Peasant’s Revolt – to 1906, when the Duke of Devonshire’s resignation brought down the Tory government: the family’s fortunes (and misfortunes) mirrored the life of the nation. The Devonshires is also the story of the huge support networks of servants and labour needed to sustain the supremacy of a family whose accumulated wealth, from the Dissolution of the Monasteries to the coming of the railways, saw them found ship ports, holiday resorts, scientific laboratories, stud farms and some of the most significant buildings in the land. For this new history, Hattersley has been given unique access to the archives, based at Chatsworth, the family seat.The Devonshires is as rich and ravishing a read as Hattersley’s bestselling The Edwardians. Whereas previous books on the Devonshires have dealt with one or two key figures, Hattersley gathers the dynasty in one place: an astonishing accumulation of scientists, soldiers, patrons, politicians, house builders, racehorse breeders, philanderers, and powerful women. The huge personalities in the Devonshire story, and the vibrant details that Hatterley uncovers, make for a lively and illuminating path in to the political, social and cultural changes that England has endured and enjoyed. Brilliantly researched, this is delicious popular history at its very best.