Joan Maynard: A Passionate Socialist

This first full biography, based on extensive interviews with Joan Maynard herself in addition to exhaustive research, tells her remarkable story, beginning with her birth in 1921 in rural North Yorkshire, where throughout her life she was renowned and respected locally for her willingness to take on the establishment and fight any case of perceived unfairness or injustice.

Between 1974 and 1987 she served as Member of Parliament for Sheffield Brightside, and throughout the 1970s and 1980s was the foremost proponent in Parliament of detente with the USSR, never wavering from her principles nor slackening in the zeal and passionate oratory with which she promulgated them.

The primary source for this biography of British socialist Joan Maynard (1921-1998) was a series of interviews with her over a four-year period preceding her death. The biography describes her political career, in which she developed from a parish councilor to a Member of Parliament. O'Connor (U. of Gloucestershire) argues that it is not the advancement in positions that is most significant, but her steadfastness in promoting social justice. Distributed by ISBS. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Kristine Mason O'Connor trained as a sociologist of education. She is Head of the Centre for Learning and Teaching at the University of Gloucestershire and Co-Chair of the national Staff and Educational Development Association.