There were few more controversial British politicians of the twentieth-century than Enoch Powell. There were few more brilliant, and yet, whilst being an MP for thirty-seven years, his ministerial career lasted a mere fifteen months. His influence however was enormous not least as a harbinger of Thatcherism.
There was much more to him though: he was a Professor of Greek at the age of twenty-five: a brigadier at the age of thirty-two: he was also a poet, biblical scholar and devoted family man.
The word 'definitive' is hackneyed but in describing this biography it can be used legitimately. Not only was Simon Heffer able to interview Enoch Powell he was also given access to Powell's massive private archive.
'In future, anyone who want to study Enoch Powell will start here'. Bruce Anderson, Spectator
First published in 1998, this biography has been out of print for a number of years. Demand for it however remains constant and Faber Finds is happy to meet that demand.
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In a controversial account of a controversial man, Heffer goes some way towards rescuing Powell from demonisation--though there's no getting away from how hilariously curmudgeonly he often was. He seemed to spend his entire childhood being 81 years old; Heffer's account of the proud, spiky Classical scholar (Powell's precocity in this area was astonishing) poncing about like Socrates, his flirtation with morbid German Romanticism and his desire for war, and his success in the army despite his mannerisms and brusque, self- assured superiority do eventually make him a human, almost sympathetic character; but one is not always sure that Heffer is right to attribute irony to Powell's more drastic remarks rather than, say, arrogance or naivety.
What Heffer has done--remarkably swiftly, given that he only saw Powell's most personal papers after his death--is to provide an enormous, well-sourced and sympathetic biography of a towering yet flawed figure. It has wit and an attention to detail that would have pleased the pedantic Powell in his guise of scholar. The youngest ever British professor, promoted from private to brigadier during World War Two, and a much-loved politician for two parties, Powell also wrote tolerable romantic poetry (in the mould of A.E. Housman). One is left with a sense of sadness that such an intelligent and hard-working man was so coldly intellectual as never to appreciate the appalling consequences of his discussion of race and immigration. Whether or not Powell was a racist (and even his enemies seem to have doubted this) his ideas were received rapturously by those who were. But there was more to the man than that; and this is a surprisingly engaging portrait of a sometimes disagreeable genius. --Robert Potts
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