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FiveBooks Interviews
Philip Cowley is Professor of Parliamentary Government at the University of Nottingham. He is the author/editor of seven books and more than 50 articles, including articles for the British Journal of Political Science, Party Politics and the British Journal of Politics & International Relations. He runs revolts.co.uk, an academic research project looking at the way MPs and peers vote. We know quite a lot about how MPs behave in the House, he says. ‘We know almost nothing about how they behave in their constituencies – what they do with their time and then whether it matters. We think it matters but maybe not electorally or at least as much as they think. But in terms of generating good will amongst the constituents – does any of this matter or is it a big waste of time?’
Steve Darlow is the grandson of a bomber command pilot and the author of nine books on military aviation. During 12 years of research, he has interviewed more than a hundred RAF aircrew. He talks to FiveBooks about his recent book Flight Path to Murder, plus five of his favourite books about pilots during the Second World War.
Peter Lilley was Margaret Thatcher’s Secretary of State for Trade and Industry 1990-1992 and was Secretary of State for Social Security 1992-1997. He was Member of Parliament for St Albans from 1983-1997 and, following boundary changes in 1997, he became MP for Hitchin & Harpenden. He chaired the Globalisation and Global Poverty Policy Group, advising Bob Geldof, which reported in July 2007. He tells FiveBooks that Samuel Johnson, man of letters and author of the 1755 Dictionary of the English Language, was not a hard-hearted Tory caricature, but a champion of the poor and enslaved.
Chris Mullin has been Labour MP for Sunderland South since 1987. He has been a minister in three departments – Environment, International Development and the Foreign Office. He is a former investigative television journalist and writer, whose book A Very British Coup was adapted for television. He also wrote Error of Judgement which led to the release of the six innocent men convicted of the Birmingham pub bombings, and in which he describes how he tracked down and confronted the real bombers. As an MP, he is well known for his interests in Far Eastern affairs – particularly Cambodia and Vietnam.
Brian McFarlane is a leading academic on film and the writer and editor of The Encyclopedia of British Film. He is Honorary Associate Professor at Melbourne’s Monash University and Visiting Professor at the University of Hull. He is a film critic and a regular contributor to publications such as the Australian Book Review. He is also a fellow of the Australian Humanities Academy and was awarded the Australian government’s Centenary Medal for services to the arts and literature in 2003.
Lord David Lipsey is a journalist and Labour peer. He was adviser to British Prime Minister James Callaghan in the 1970s and a member of the Jenkins Committee on Electoral Reform, the Royal Commission on Long-Term Care of the Elderly and the Davies Panel on the BBC licence fee. His book The Secret Treasury was published in 2000. His racing novel Counter Coup is awaiting publication.
Lord Owen was one of the founders of the British Social Democratic Party (SDP) and led the SDP from 1983 to 1987. He was British Foreign Secretary (from 1977 to 1979) and has been a controversial figure for much of his career, inspiring great devotion among close followers. He sits in the House of Lords as a crossbencher and his most recent book, Time to Declare: Second Innings, came out last year. Here he tells FiveBooks that the House of Lords should be a fully elected body and that Tony Blair’s careerism is a disgrace.
Professor James Hunter is director of the Centre for History, University of the Highlands and Islands. He is the author of 12 books about the Highlands including A Dance Called America, The Making of the Crofting Community and On the Other Side of Sorrow: Nature and People in the Scottish Highlands. He was the first director of the Scottish Crofters Union. He also chaired Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the north of Scotland’s development agency.
Hector McDonnell is one of Ireland's best-known contemporary painters. Raised in Co Antrim, he had a classical education at Eton and Oxford, and then studied art in Munich and Vienna. His work has taken him all over Europe and North America, and to Tibet, China, India, Rwanda and Sri Lanka. He has illustrated many books of Irish literature and poetry, and has written four books and numerous articles on various aspects of Irish history.
Here he recommends books on early Irish history.