Oxford Literary Festival

Former cabinet minister Alan Johnson paints Harold Wilson as a truly 20th-century man who was as much part of the 1960s as the Beatles and the Profumo scandal.

Johnson’s portrait of Wilson is the second in a new series on British prime ministers. Johnson says Wilson was one of the most successful prime ministers of the 20th century. He was in office between 1964 and 1970 and again between 1974 and 1976. He won four elections and a referendum on European Community entry, legalised homosexuality, protected ethnic minorities and improved women’s rights.

‘The finest prose stylist in the House of Commons since Roy Jenkins’ Mark Lawson

Johnson was a Labour MP for 20 years and served in the Blair and Brown governments including as education secretary, health secretary and home secretary. He has written three volumes of a highly acclaimed memoir, This Boy, Please Mister Postman and The Long and Winding Road, and three novels.

£10 – 18