Roy Jenkins: A Retrospective

Roy Jenkins was a dominating figure in British politics across the four decades before his death in 2003, with an impact and legacy greater than many prime ministers of the period. These essays, by friends and associates of Roy Jenkins from every phase of his life, chart his remarkable career with insight, anecdote, and empathy. Each contributor writes from a close and unique relationship with their subject.

Roy Jenkins was a dominating figure in British politics across the four decades before his death in 2003, with an impact and legacy greater than many prime ministers of the period. These essays, by friends and associates of Roy Jenkins from every phase of his life, chart his remarkable career with insight, anecdote, and empathy. Each contributor writes from a close and unique relationship with their subject.

Andrew Adonis is special adviser to Tony Blair (since 1998) and was Head of the Downing Street Policy Unit, 2001-3. An Oxford history graduate, he was from 1988 to 1998 successively Fellow in Politics at Nuffield College, Oxford, Public Policy Editor of the Financial Times, and a columnist and leader-writer on the Observer. His books include studies of the Victorian aristocracy, the rise and fall of the poll tax, the English class system, and the development of modern British government and politics. His biography of Roy Jenkins is forthcoming. Keith Thomas, like Roy Jenkins, was educated at South Wales grammar school (Barry) and at Balliol College, Oxford. He is an Oxford historian who was a college tutor at St John's and, later, President of Corpus Christi. In 2001 he returned to All Souls College, where he was a Fellow in the 1950s. He has been President of the British Academy (1993-7), a Trustee of the British Museum (since 1999). His writings on social and cultural history include Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971) and Man and the Natural World (1983).