The Book Club: Alan Johnson

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The Spectator

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4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 9 October 2024

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the former Home Secretary Alan Johnson, who joins me to talk about his new biography of Harold Wilson. He tells me about Wilson’s rocket-powered rise to the top, how he learned oratory on the hoof, why he might have been right to be paranoid… and what really went on with Marcia.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This edition of the Book Club podcast is brought to you in association with serious readers who make a serious reading light.
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0:12.3	You can adjust its focus and brightness.
0:14.7	It's fantastically easy to position.
0:17.4	It's got a kind of long snake-like arm you can use to fix it in place. And speaking
0:21.8	as somebody's tried it out, it's a godsend to someone with aging eyes and a serious reading habit.
0:27.3	Use the offer code TBC to claim £100 off any HD light with free delivery and a 30-day
0:34.1	money-back guarantee. Go to www.seriousreaders.com forward slash Spectator.
0:45.0	Hello and welcome to Spectators Book Club podcast.
0:50.4	I'm Sam Leith, the literary editor of The Spectator.
0:52.6	My guest this week is Alan Johnson,
0:54.8	whose new book is an entry in Swift Pressive Prime Minister's series
0:59.3	called Harold Wilson, 20th Century Man.
1:02.6	Alan, welcome.
1:03.6	Well, maybe the subtitles is the best place to start.
1:06.6	What is it about his 20th centuryness that stands out about Harold Wilson?
1:09.7	Why did that make him attractive to you? Well, I make the point. He wasn't the first Prime Minister born in his 20th centuryness that stands out about Harold Wilson? Why did that make him attractive to him?
1:10.8	Well, I make the point.
1:11.7	He wasn't the first Prime Minister born in the 20th century.
1:15.6	His predecessor, Sir Alec Douglas Hume, was.
1:19.8	But the difference between Hume, who seemed more Edwardian than New Elizabethan,
1:25.2	you know, he'd go around at plus fours and be seen grouse shooting.
	...

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