Ernest Bevin - Labour's Churchill by Andrew Adonis and Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa

These books stand in contrast. Both are intelligent and readable, and their authors are knowledgeable. They focus upon three political figures: Ernest Bevin, Joe Biden and Donald Trump — two of them prejudiced, two of them combative, two of them observ­antly Christians, two of them humorous, two of them admir­able. It is easy for any reader to work out who fits where.

Ernest Bevin was a pre-war founder of the Transport and General Workers Union, a crucial ministerial player on Churchill’s Home Front, and Labour’s outstanding Foreign Secretary. Despite his most dis-advantaged beginnings, by the late 1940s he had the most influential voice in western Europe’s foreign relations. Joe Biden was born to greater advantages, but his family fortunes were far from good and, as is well known, he has seen much family tragedy. Donald Trump was born to money and continues therein, and came to fame through real estate and reality television.

Lord Adonis’ interpretation of Ernest Bevin is more that of a fellow activist (with a similar difficult childhood) than of the careful Oxford historian of his early career. The result is an appealing and accessible biography of a remarkable man, rather than a magnum opus. It deserves every success —both to honour a great man, and to show how the Labour party has changed so radically ; for though the old rhetoric is declaimed from time to time, a figure like Mr Bevin is now all but unthinkable.

Peril, on the other hand, is a book of the moment, the product of two distinguished journalists, one of them very distinguished indeed. Its interest lies, not so much in the careers of Mr Trump and Mr Biden as in their part in the bizarre events of the past year. Like Mr Bevin, the 45^th  president and the 46^th both attract strong loyalties : but Ernie and Joe always both gave and received a deep personal warmth that has completely eluded Donald.

Mr Woodward and Mr Costa write well, but after a time one feels uneasy. Paragraphs are short, usually very short. The reader is whirled from incident to incident with no pause for analysis. The facts are interesting and apparently accurate and their selection is reasonable : but what in the end do they signify? Mr Trump is clearly impulsive and self-obsessed: Mr Biden is just as clearly the opposite. But a Pandora’s box has been opened by Mr Trump and it has released upon the world we know not what. And we badly need to know. Though these things take time to become clear —after all, the dust even of the post-war settlement is still settling— some wise and informed guidance is badly needed in the meantime.

Ophicleide