Paperback round up: The Times HBK:
The Telegraph and Daily Mail 'Best Political Books of 2024'

Telegraph review by Simon Heffer: ‘[An] intelligent and thoughtful set of essays … Bogdanor’s book is revelatory.’

Sunday Times review by Max Hastings: ‘Written with cool objectivity … [a] thought-provoking book.’

Spectator review by Chris Mullin: ‘A series of elegant essays.’

The Jerusalem Post review by Colin Shindler: ‘Bogdanor has written an incisive and absorbing account of these seminal British figures. He has added the color of the past to the monochrome of the present.’

Festivals and events: Waterstones Canterbury [6 March]; Oxford Literature Festival [31 March]; Chipping Campden Literature Festival [5 May]; HowTheLightGetsIn Festival [25 May]; Ilminster Literary Festival [29 May]; Proms at St Judes Litfest [21/22 June]; Highgate Library and Scientific Institute [25 November]

Making the Weather is the story of six post-war politicians, all of whom exerted an outsized influence on the political life of the UK; an influence greater than that of most prime ministers. Vernon Bogdanor’s cast includes three from the political Left – Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan, Roy Jenkins, and Tony Benn – and three from the political Right – Enoch Powell, Keith Joseph, and Nigel Farage. Each study is a fascinating analysis that examines how these men achieved such prominence and influence and how, though very different figures in many ways, they came to dominate the political landscape, often for a period of years.

Each of the six made fundamental contributions to the debate about Britain’s future and to the vibrancy of our democracy. From immigration to Europe, from the NHS to devolution, the issues and causes that brought these men to prominence are still of considerable contemporary relevance.