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Like The Roman: The Life of Enoch Powell (Hardcover)

by Simon Heffer (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 969 pages
  • Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson (23 Nov 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0297842862
  • ISBN-13: 978-0297842866
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 492,889 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #31 in  Books > Biography > Political > Britain > Liberalism
    #43 in  Books > Biography > Political > Britain > Conservatism

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
When Enoch Powell died in February 1998, British politics lost one of its most remarkable and intelligent figures. A controversial politician, Powell is most widely remembered for his infamous "Rivers of Blood" speech on immigration in 1968 while the Labour government was trying to pass its race relations legislation. He was sacked from the Shadow Cabinet as a result of the ensuing outcry. Whatever the consequences for race relations in Britain-–and many would still maintain that Powell helped to engender a climate of fear and mistrust in which National Front activity steadily increased for more than a decade afterwards-–the speech destroyed Powell's political career.

In a controversial account of a controversial man, Heffer goes some way towards rescuing Powell from demonisation--though there's no getting away from how hilariously curmudgeonly he often was. He seemed to spend his entire childhood being 81 years old; Heffer's account of the proud, spiky Classical scholar (Powell's precocity in this area was astonishing) poncing about like Socrates, his flirtation with morbid German Romanticism and his desire for war, and his success in the army despite his mannerisms and brusque, self- assured superiority do eventually make him a human, almost sympathetic character; but one is not always sure that Heffer is right to attribute irony to Powell's more drastic remarks rather than, say, arrogance or naivety.

What Heffer has done--remarkably swiftly, given that he only saw Powell's most personal papers after his death--is to provide an enormous, well-sourced and sympathetic biography of a towering yet flawed figure. It has wit and an attention to detail that would have pleased the pedantic Powell in his guise of scholar. The youngest ever British professor, promoted from private to brigadier during World War Two, and a much-loved politician for two parties, Powell also wrote tolerable romantic poetry (in the mould of A.E. Housman). One is left with a sense of sadness that such an intelligent and hard-working man was so coldly intellectual as never to appreciate the appalling consequences of his discussion of race and immigration. Whether or not Powell was a racist (and even his enemies seem to have doubted this) his ideas were received rapturously by those who were. But there was more to the man than that; and this is a surprisingly engaging portrait of a sometimes disagreeable genius. --Robert Potts

Product Description
The definitive, controversial, authroised biography of 1 of the defining political figures of postwar Britain. There have been many biographies of Enoch Powell - this will be the 7th or the 8th. They testify at least to the fascination we have for him, but none will be a patch on Simon Heffer's, the only 1 written with full access to all his personal and public papers, by 1 of Britain's leading conservative commentators and, with his acclaimed book on Carlyle published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1 of it's most promising biographers. The book will cover all aspects of Powell's life : his Midlands childhood, his teaching by A.E.Housman, his appointment at the age of 25 as professor of Greek at the University of Adelaide, his writing of poetry, his love for an aristocratic Irish woman, his resignation from Macmillans cabinet, the Rivers of Blood speech, and his spiritual Godfathering of Margaret Thatcher. It will also, effectively, be a history of postwar British politics from Powell's perspective, and should be 1 of the highlights of the Autumn 1998 season.

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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars An insight into 50 years of politics, 17 Aug 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Like The Roman: The Life of Enoch Powell (Paperback)
Having had a high regard for Enoch Powel despite being as far from him in political terms as it is possible to get it did not surprise me to find from this book that he was also regarded the same way by many of his political opponents.
He and Tony Benn were two sides of the same coin - alas extinct in modern politics - honourable, intelligent men and real politicians.
Simon Heffer's excellent biography is not to be started lightly but once commenced is difficult to put down. It captures the man from his speeches, writing and broadcasting and, for one who lived through the era in question, brings it all back to mind.
Despite being uncritical about the correctness of Powell's economic theories the book lays out a fascinating study of a great man.
Anyone who harbours the opinion that Enoch Powell was a racist will be sadly disabused if they read this.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Was Powell a racist?, 2 Mar 2007
By Concerned Reader (Worthington, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
I must take issue with a previous reviewer, who feels that Powell must have been a racist to have made the speeches where he raised racial issues. But as Powell himself pointed out, these were issues of great concern, and NOT to speak out would have been a dereliction of his duty as a citizen and representative of his constituents.

Powell had the ability to see through a lot of cant and get to the crucial issues and consequences. To bring up one set of consequences for discussion is not to suggest that it will happen, must happen or should happen, and Powell himself pointed this out. But if someone foresees problems ahead, it is a responsibility to present them for consideration and discussion. The almost inevitable downside of this action is to be portrayed as advocating the very consequences that one is warning against.

Has what Powell feared come to pass? In part, yes. The above reviewer clearly forgets things like the race-based and anti-police riots of the early Thatcher years. It is easy to look around Europe and see the disappearance of national sovereignty. (It may be one reason why the IRA and the Basques more-or-less gave it up, as even if you get a separate state, that whole notion disappears in the new Europe.) Powell's fear of the US becoming a major, almost dictatorial, world power has partly come true under Bush. Where else in the 21st century would a nation decide that it had the right to pre-emptive invasions on mere suspicion? Further, the nature of Britain and British society today is most certainly not like Britain in the mid-1960s, and a part of that is a consequence of immigration. And Political Correctness still holds significant sway.

So why didn't Powell get it exactly right? One obvious factor is that he was dealing with a very complex society in transition, and predictions are very difficult. Second, he was looking at the more dire consequences, not for sensationalist purposes, but because they were a possibility and needed to be discussed. Third, the mere fact that he did get the topic into discussion, meant that some people did think about it, and that may have mitigated some of the consequences. Finally, I think he overlooked the homogenising effect of the school system.

Many immigrants have a tendency to cluster together, simply because it is something familiar and safe. This was a concern of Powell's, that segregation was happening in an unplanned way, but happening nonetheless. But the next generation has a tendency to move away from their parents and into the mainstream. Schools help this process by providing phenomenal peer pressure from the students, rather than any intent of the system. The result is the assimilation/integration that Powell wanted, but the net result is not the original society. With the different inputs and the changing times, the result is a new society. It's not just immigration, but also the information age, the age of globalization, and the closer ties with Europe. The next generation of childen of the children is more closely integrated again. And Britain has another advantage, in that it is actually quite accepting of immigrants in many ways, perhaps far more than many other countries, and that seems to be in the culture. (No, it's not universal, but collectively it is better.)

I have watched the process in Australia and the US, as well as the UK. I can see where Powell was coming from, and what he saw. I also know why he spoke out: he personally had no choice, and he had the courage and integrity to do it and face the consequences. But Powell was always his own man, in the best sense of the term.

This biography doesn't really do Powell the man justice. But it does give insight to one part of his mind and gets part of his thinking out for discussion. I hope that history is far kinder to Powell as time goes on than it has been to date.
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30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Soldier, academic, poet, philosopher, politician., 29 April 2003
By D. Boulton (Bristol) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Like The Roman: The Life of Enoch Powell (Paperback)
Enoch Powell was many things to many people; not least because he was many things. An esteemed academic, Powell was the authority on Greek language and literature - a master scholar; a genius.

To the ill-informed, he was, above all a racist and a fascist. It is only when one realises that he staked his life, with millions of others, in the defence of democracy and the defeat of Nazism in World War II, that it is possible to see just how wrong this perecption is.

This book chronicles Powell's life from his unremarkable uprbringing in the West Midlands, through a highly remarkable academic career, a distinguished service of Britain in her Armed Forces, through to his time in Paliament as a Tory, Ulster Unionist, and elder statesman.

Two minor criticisms would be that there is simply too much detail, especially of Parliamentary exchanges, that is too procedural, and too impersonal, and that, secondly, too little emphasis is given to his later years and an analysis of his political legacy.

Certainly, this book is far too detailed for the casual reader: if you merely want an overview of Powell's life, his motivations, his impact, this is not it. As an 18 year old Conservative, this book was both fascinating and surprising. The fact that I expected not to be impressed with a man labelled 'racist', 'fascist', 'out-dated' etc., perhaps bears testament to Powell's dire predictions of the rise of the Political Correct classes' influence. I certainly was impressed, and anyone bringing a remotely Conservative mind - or, I suggest, open mind - to this book would struggle to be otherwise.

Powell is undoubtedly best-known for his 'Rivers of Blood' speech. The scourge of the Left, the hate figure of the race relations industry, Powell predicted apocalyptic consequences of an open-house immigration policy. It will, again, surprise many that he didn't even use the phrase 'rivers of blood' in this, or any other speech. He warned, with justification, that mass-immigration was risky; his warnings resound today as greatly as ever.

Simon Heffer is undoubtedly sympathetic to Powell. The author savages the liberal elite on Powell's posthumous behalf, sympathising with his bitter dislike of so-called Conservative like Ted Heath, but this is by no means sycophantic.

That he is remembered as a one-issue crusader is unfortunate. Powell understood how economies work thirty years before the Conservative Party. He invented monetarism and set out the principles of Thatcherism decades before Britain had its first female PM.

He was an arch-capitalist, defender of the Union, and opponent of a federal Europe. His views are held now, almost in their entirety, by mainstream Conservatives, whilst the ex-PM Margaret Thatcher openly cites his as a major influence. His economic analyses are shared by politicians of all colours today, his concern for immigration by the mass of the population, and his Euro-scepticism by the majority of 'Europeans'.

When he died, a floral tribute placed outside read simply "You were right". I suspect Heffer agrees with this, but he is not blinded by his personal affection for a great soldier, academic, poet, philosopher, and politician.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars A strange man
Unlike a number of other reviewers I'm no Powell supporter, though as this book makes clear, he wasn't a garden-variety right-winger. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Davey

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just for students of politics.
It almost goes without saying, now, that this is a work of enormous erudition, its primary subject certainly worthy of the skill and effort that produced it. Read more
Published 15 months ago by M. A. Harwood

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but could have been great.
Enoch Powell remains one of the most fascinating figures of the 20th Century British political scene: outspoken and forthright, a man of integrity, ever constroversial. Read more
Published on 3 Dec 2002 by royal_film

3.0 out of 5 stars A grand attempt on a fascinating subject, but falls short.
Enoch Powell is one of the more fascinating, enigmatic characters of 20th century politics. He was a leading, original and a fearless thinker, a setter of some trends and, for a... Read more
Published on 20 May 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars An indispensable guide to the politics of Enoch Powell
This book tells the story of one of the most loved, and hated, politicians of the 20th century. A fine biography of one of the greatest orators, parliamentarians and political... Read more
Published on 29 Mar 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating political biography
This is the finest book ever written about one of Britain's greatest politicians. Heffer's superbly detailed account of this remarkable man fills one with admiration. Read more
Published on 5 Oct 1999

4.0 out of 5 stars A highly readable biography of a controversial politician.
Here is a political paradox: Enoch Powell had all the qualities we claim to admire in politicians - intelligence, honesty, integrity. Read more
Published on 29 Sep 1999

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