My 2024 Christmas Reading List

I've put together a list of some of the best books I read in 2024 - some old, some new, but all worthy of a place on your bookshelf.

My 2024 Christmas Reading List

by Lee David Evans

The Christmas break. It’s the perfect time to lie on the sofa, toss chocolates into your mouth, and read a good book. I’ve collated some of my favourite books that I read in the past year - some old, some new, but all worthy of a place on your bookshelf.

Released this year.

Unleashed by Boris Johnson

Love him or loathe him (and, more than two years after he left office, there’s still little sign anybody is in between those poles), Boris Johnson has written a highly readable and engrossing memoir. Open it for the inside accounts of what it was like in those final few days holed up in Downing Street; but stay for the compelling account of why Johnson believes ‘levelling up’ is so important to the future of the country. No matter what one thinks of him, this book is a reminder that he can still sell a vision like few other politicians.

Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

British General Election Campaigns 1830–2019 edited by Iain Dale

Until March of this year, most of us wanting to learn about a general election campaign might have rushed to Wikipedia. No more. Iain Dale has produced an edited collection to tell the story of every British general election since 1830 (declaration of interest: I’ve written for his upcoming by-election collection, to be published in 2025, but not for this book). Highlights include Nigel Fletcher on 1852, Robert Saunders on 1886, Vernon Bogdanor on 1951, Simon Heffer on 1979 and (which can’t have been the happiest chapter to write) Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay, Theresa May’s former Political Secretary, on 2017. A great book to have on the shelf and for dipping in and out of.

Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

Kingmaker by Graham Brady

Who was Chairman of the 1922 Committee when Margaret Thatcher was felled?* Few people remember. The office has often been of significance within the Palace of Westminster but rarely beyond it. Graham Brady is the chief exception. As the leadership of the Conservative Party became the undeliverable charge of British politics, Graham Brady was the man who knew what everyone wanted to know: how many letters of no confidence disgruntled Tory MPs had submitted against their leader. In this book, Westminster’s tightest-lipped man spills the beans. I liked it so much I read it in a single day. (Separately, you can read my review of it for Literary Review here).

*It was the superbly named Cranley Onslow. His name was a hybrid of hereditary titles: he was related to the Earldom of Onslow, and his first name was one of its subsidiary titles: Viscount Cranley, of Cranley in the County of Surrey.

Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

On the Back of an Envelope by Peter Hennessy

I’ve often found that if you love politics, you love Peter Hennessy. He’s been one of the most engaging political analysts over decades, straddling the horses of academia, commentary and legislating (Hennessy was made a peer in 2010). In this collection, he casts his mind back over his long life observing politics and distils a career’s worth of wisdom into one book.

Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

For the socialist in your life…

Great Britain? by Torsten Bell

A cynic might wonder what happened to the author of this book, and if he is the same Torsten Bell who is now Labour MP for Swansea West. After reading Bell’s forceful arguments against the two child benefit cap in Great Britain? and studying his subsequent voting record as MP, you’d be forgiven for thinking he isn’t. But if the grubby reality of party politics knocks some of the shine off of a person, it doesn’t necessarily diminish their case - and lots of Bell’s arguments in this book for a greater and fairer Britain are compelling.

Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

Keeping the Red Flag Flying by Mark Garnett, Gavin Hyman & Richard Johnson

In modern Britain, Labour has been the natural party of opposition. The trials of trying to hold a government to account, keep a party together, and engineer an election victory has dominated the party’s thinking over the past century. Garnett, Hyman and Johnson have produced a timely account of the party's efforts, published shortly before this year’s election, which deftly covers the history of Labour’s attempts to get into government - and how well it prepares for what it might do when it gets there.

Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

Years Of Hope: Diaries, Letters and Papers 1940-1962 by Tony Benn

As mentioned above, I recently authored a chapter for Iain Dale on the 1963 Bristol South-East by-election, when Tony Benn returned to the Commons after three years following the death of his father, the first Viscount Stansgate, and the inheritance of his peerage. Benn, ‘the reluctant peer’ (or, as he preferred to be known, ‘the persistent commoner’, but there was nothing common about him), fought vigorously to disclaim his father’s title. It was a saga in which the crown, the government, the major parties, and the voters of Bristol all played their part and these diaries, typically less celebrated than the next volume which sees Labour enter government and Benn become a minister, finish with a lengthy interview with legendary psephologist David Butler of Nuffield College, Oxford, about the early stages of the disclaimer campaign. They provide a gripping account of a unique period in history.

Buy from Amazon UK

… and the Tory.

Back from the Brink by Peter Snowdon

What almost everybody predicted has come to pass: the Conservatives, after fourteen years, are back in Opposition. Snowdon’s account of the last time it happened - after the 1997 election, what then seemed a grim election without parallel for the Tories but which has since been well-and-truly eclipsed - is a must-read. What went wrong for Hague? Why did the party fail to recover in 2001 and 2005? And what finally went right in 2010? If people in the party pay attention to some of the lessons of this book, the Tories may not find themselves in opposition for so long.

Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

Truss at 10 by Anthony Seldon and Jonathan Meakin

Seldon’s book on Britain’s shortest-lived prime minister is structured around an article he authored about ten ways to be a good prime minister. When applied to Truss and her 49 day rule, it becomes not a ‘how to’ but a ‘what not to do.’ Truss’ name has become synonymous with the idea of Tory misrule and until the party can find a way to break with this period in its past it will struggle to recover. Understanding what went wrong, why, and how never to repeat it would be a good place to start - and for that, Seldon’s book is brilliant.

Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

Blue Jerusalem by Kit Kowol

Plenty of people have written books about conservatism, but few make such original observations as Kowol. In this book he focuses on the bold thinking that went on in some conservative circles during the Second World War about Britain in the post-war age. In the end it was, of course, Labour rather than the Conservatives who became the vehicle for remaking Britain after 1945. But that these ideas never really came to fruition does little to diminish this book’s quality. If you’re looking for a weightier but still very engaging Christmas read, I recommend it.

Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

General history.

Uproar! By Alice Loxton

This book won’t be for everyone. As history books go, it’s almost gossipy. Throughout, Loxton drops in modern day references (an 18th century mini scandal is afforded the suffix -gate, for example) and even concocts scenes for which there is little evidence. But whilst these literary quirks may appear to cheapen a history book, they in fact make this one brilliantly readable, whilst its regular footnotes remind you how well-researched and authoritative it is. You’ll learn a huge amount about the world of Georgian printmaking and the satirical boom Rowlandson, Gillray and others created - and have fun along the way.

Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

All In It Together by Alwyn Turner

I listened to the audiobook of this book earlier this year. I used to be a bit sceptical of audiobooks, but having spent a lot of June delivering leaflets in the election campaign, the belief that I was working my way through a good book, rather than merely stuffing leaflets through letterboxes to minimal effect, made me think my time wasn’t totally wasted. All In It Together was one of those I listened to. I’ve come to think of Turner as one of the great chroniclers of modern England, and this book is no exception. He has the knack of focusing on events which are easily forgotten about but prove either highly consequential or revealing about what was to come. (The section on the rise of UKIP, and Robert Kilroy Silk’s role in it, is one great example from this volume). A must read - or listen.

Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

(If you’re interested in trying out audiobooks, click here for a free trial of Audible.)

OUT by Tim Shipman

Personally, I found ‘No Way Out’ quite a dense read. There were lots of technical details about backstops, transition arrangements, political declarations and so on, all of which seemed crucial at the time they were being debated but now feel like weeds in the Brexit forest. I’m not criticising Shipman for including them in the third volume of his Brexit quarter - they’re a key part of the story, and much of the drama was found in how the government, MPs and the European Union responded at each stage. But I’m currently reading OUT, the fourth and final instalment, and enjoying it much more - even if the topic, the rise and fall of three prime ministers, is a gloomy read not just for Tories, but for the country they governed.

Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

And finally, something completely different.

The Wager by David Grann

If you don’t want to spend your Christmas period reading or thinking about politics, try The Wager instead. Through every twist and turn, this true narrative of an 18th century ship is totally gripping. There’s jaw-dropping accounts of peril, deceit, division and even redemption. Perhaps it’s rather like politics, after all…

Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

And finally, here are the books I haven’t read yet, but that I’m looking forward to reading this Christmas:

• Taken As Red: How Labour Won Big and the Tories Crashed the Party by Anushka Asthana

• Failed State: Why Nothing Works and How We Fix It by Sam Freedman

• Lowborn: Growing Up, Getting Away and Returning to Britain’s Poorest Towns by Kerry Hudson

Happy reading!

Like this post? Click the ‘heart’ below to help other people find it on Substack. Please also feel free to share this post with anyone you think may be interested.