Enoch Powell (H Books) Book

John Enoch Powell (1912-98) was the most controversial British politician of the second half of the 20th century. His 1968 speeches on immigration - and especially the 'Rivers of Blood' speech at Birmingham on 20 April - created a furore. This austere and forbidding figure an intellectual in politics and a man with a reputation for unbending integrity was suddenly the most popular man in Britain - but also the most hated. Conservative leader Edward Heath immediately sacked him from the Shadow Cabinet for the 'racialist tone' of his speech. He was never to hold office again though had the Tories lost the general election of 1970 Powell might well have replaced Heath as leader. Heath won in 1970 though to some degree because of Powell's influence in the West Midlands.Powell is a biographer's dream. He was not only a politician but a distinguished scholar philosopher historian and poet. He was austere and yet undoubtedly charismatic coldly logical and yet a romantic of strong passions.Even his private life is a rich source of interest: his first poems referred to a homosexual friendship and when he did find a girlfriend at the age of 38 he was so inept that the object of his affections Barbara Kennedy had no idea that he had actually proposed.Read More