Smile for the Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith

Simon Danczuk; Matthew Baker

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1849546444 ISBN 13: 9781849546447

Publisher: Biteback, 2014

Shortlisted for Political Book of the Year, Paddy Power Political Book Awards 2015

'This important book should be read by all those charged with delivering criminal justice, by all those interested in politics, but most importantly by those in every community motivated by a healthy and unstinting scepticism of authority.' Keir Starmer, Progress Magazine

No politician pandered to the media's appetite for personality more than Liberal MP Sir Cyril Smith during the 1970s and 1980s. With his remarkable girth and regular appearances on the chat show circuit, blurring the lines between politics and show business, Smith was a larger-than-life character in a landscape of dull, grey men. Yet 'Big Cyril' was anything but the gentle giant he sought to portray.

In November 2012, Rochdale's current MP Simon Danczuk outed Smith in the House of Commons as a serial child abuser. In Smile for the Camera, Danczuk tells how Cyril Smith rose from poor beginnings to become a dominating political figure in the Northwest and nationally, and used his extraordinary profile to conceal a spectacular abuse of power: systematically grooming and sexually abusing young boys, often in care homes he helped to establish.

Smith's story begins as an illegitimate child in the grinding poverty of post-war Rochdale. This background kindled a ruthlessness that drove him on to eventually take over his home town, running it as his own personal fiefdom in which he could do as he pleased. This is a story deeply rooted in time and place.

Smith's dark side was obscured by his overbearing personality and went unnoticed by the public at large. His victims, often troubled boys from broken homes, had no voice against the famous politician. And yet there were always rumours. Rochdale parents would threaten misbehaved children with a visit from 'Uncle Cyril'. However, a charmer and a bully with an iron grip on his town, his misdemeanours were never prosecuted. Those who tried found their operations mysteriously shut down by higher authorities. Consequently, Smith retired from politics in 1992 and died in his sleep in 2010. Many of his victims later committed suicide or drifted into a life of drug abuse or prison.

Smile for the Camera is a deeply troubling story of a truly shocking abuse of power, and asks urgent questions of those who allowed Smith to get away with it.

Review:

Mr Danczuk's courageous book has opened up a stinking can of worms and it seems clear that only a proper judicial investigation can uncover the whole unsavoury truth. --Daily Mail

This is an extremely good book, and a brave one, too. --Rod Liddle, Sunday Times

[A] Brave, disturbing, in many ways brilliant book. --Daniel Finkelstein, The Times

Must Reads, Our Choice of the Best Recent books: a brave study of the lies and cover-ups --Sunday Times Magazine

A bold and genuine attempt to fill in some of the gaps in the myth of Smith... The Danczuk-Baker book merits close attention. --Rochdale Online

About the Author:

Simon Danczuk is the Labour MP for Rochdale. Beginning his working life in a factory, aged sixteen, he later studied at night school before going to Lancaster University as a mature student to study sociology and politics. He went on to co-found a social research company based in Manchester, before entering Parliament in 2010. Matt Baker has worked in journalism, academia and politics. He has written and campaigned extensively on children's rights and, along with Simon, helped investigate Cyril Smith's past and record the victims accounts of abuse. This is his first book.