A curate's egg of a Companion. . - Reviews - book review

The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Politics. John Ramsden, editor. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]35.00. 714 pages. ISBN 0-19-860134.

The Editor of this 'curate's egg' of a Companion is well known for his excellent histories of the Conservative Party, which after all was in control for two-thirds of this 'Conservative Century'. His own lengthy entry on that party is informative and provides a commendably unbiased account of the many battles within the party. Yet when one turns to the individual entries on Margaret Thatcher (always a superb indicator of the bias of any book) or any of her Cabinet (except malcontents such as Michael Heseltine and, especially, Kenneth Clarke) one finds, since these are done by a prominent anti-Tory journalist, that sarcasm has replaced scholarship. The contrast between this undergraduate style and exemplary entries such as the account of Edward Heath's Chancellor, Anthony Barber, is astounding.

The first thing anyone who consults a reference work wants to know is basic facts such as the dates of offices held. Thus someone interested in the details of the actual career of Alan Clarke, whose well known 'immortal' diary will long be consulted, will not find which junior ministry he held, let alone the dates. Nor are we usually told what a MP's constituency was, an important omission when trying to get some idea of a modern politician's motivation. Also, anyone wanting the essential information about a person's background will normally emerge unsatisfied. The entry on Michael Portillo, for instance, tells us nothing of his Spanish parentage or his admission of some homosexual experiences, which facts are both crucial to his public image and powerful factors, no doubt, in his failure to obtain the Tory leadership.

Naturally no two persons would agree on the selection of people included or the length of the entries. British Communists get absurd attention with lengthy entries of the party's various luminaries, longer than that of the Queen Mother, the most popular figure of the century. In fact there are the same number of entries for royal figures, eleven, as for Communist worthies. Thus one John Thomas Murphy 'who played a key role in the wartime Sheffield shop stewards' movement' receives a full entry even though the date of death is not even known. The royal entries are not badly done but often their phraseology, by an Associate Professor of Carthage College in Kinsosha, Wisconsin, is somewhat odd. It is peculiar, to say the least, to describe the Queen as being 'ruled' by the Prime Minister! There are also slavishly deferential entries on various historians and political scientists.

One welcome feature is the large attention given to influential civil servants and advisors such as Robert Morant or Sir Percy Cradock. There are also useful entries on the Royal Secretaries who play such a vital although usually hidden role in the actual working of the Constitution. There are splendid entries on aspects of Parliament especially that on the House of Lords and its procedures. These are truly authoritative as they are done by a recent Clerk in that House. The entry on 'political correctness' is also delightfully dismissive of 'one of the most extraordinary phenomena to sweep the Western world'.

This Companion is an apt reflection of the subject it seeks to cover: it has some memorable high moments, some best forgotten but the vast bulk of entries reside somewhere in the unremarkable middle.

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