Steve Richards and I are ‘Swifties’. That is to say we have both written books in the Swift Press series on eminent Prime Ministers – Steve on Tony Blair, me on Harold Wilson. 
We got together to compare our subjects at the final event of the York Literature Festival. Our hosts were St Peter’s, the famous old public school in York where Guy Fawkes was educated (although the school understandably refrains from boasting about its most famous alumnus).

Anyway, there were plenty of fireworks on Tuesday night as Steve snd I discussed the record of our respective Labour Prime Ministers, adding in Kier Starmer who is yet to enter the Swift hall of fame.

Steve is one of Britain’s most revered political journalists who has a knack of explaining complex issues in clear and entertaining ways (as his show at the Edinburgh Festival each year has long demonstrated). In a similar vein, the Swift biographies are written to be accessible. We agreed that being confined to 30,000 words when the average political biography probably runs to 200,000, is difficult but forces the author to concentrate on the essentials, excluding the ballast that often appears in the larger tomes.

As our packed audience of 400 found out yesterday evening, Steve is also a brilliant impressionist. His Wilson and Blair were excellent. He says that Starmer remains work in progress!