Footnotes to history.(The Uncollected Michael Foot: Essays Old and New 1953-2003)(Book Review)

The Uncollected Michael Foot: Essays Old and New 1953-2003, by Michael Foot, edited by Brian Brivati; Politico's, 2003, $84.

MICHAEL FOOT was a somewhat flawed leader of the British Labour Party. He looked eccentric. He was too intellectual. And, he was too much of the socialist and radical for the spirit of the times. In short, Foot was no match for Margaret Thatcher.

However, Foot is a fine writer. Whilst television did not serve him well, he was an impressive parliamentary orator, widely read and scholarly. It is his capacities as a journalist, book reviewer and commentator upon which this recent volume focuses.

It was, of course, a mistake for Foot to pursue the Labour leadership. As Roy Hattersley expressed it: "Why does the first-rate Michael Foot want to be a second-rate Nye Bevan?" The editor of this collection of miscellaneous book reviews and essays by Foot over the last few decades poses an astute question, namely whether Foot has pursued "the wrong life". I understand by this observation that the editor is raising the question as to whether Foot should have stuck to scholarship, journalism and sceptical inquiry as opposed to the task of vulgar politics.

Most readers of this collection will be familiar with Foot's magisterial two-volume biography of Aneurin Bevan, published in 1962 and 1973. Although Bevan was Foot's political hero, this eloquent text cannot be dismissed as mere hagiography. With great literary style, Foot proffers the view that Bevan's commitment to democratic socialism did more than any other to keep the doctrine alive as adventurous, ambitious, intelligent and truly liberal. He adds a tribute to Bevan's eloquence, subtlety, fidelity and courage. Maybe this is hero worship but it is both heartfelt and well expressed.

Many would also know of Foot's earlier collection of essays, Debts of Honour, published in 1980, a brilliant series of literary excursions. However, even putting aside the currently published collection, how many of us knew that Foot had published substantial books on the 1918 Armistice, Mussolini, the Suez Crisis, an argument in vindication of Byron and a biography of H.G. Wells?

The book under review exposes an even larger area of intellectual interest ...