We're launching a podcast!

A new weekly podcast hosted by Richard Johnson and Lee David Evans looking at some of our favourite events and people in post-war British political history.

Lee & Richard.

Since launching earlier this year, there have been 25 articles on the ‘Since Attlee & Churchill’ Substack, telling stories of Conservative leadership elections, firebrand scouse Labour MPs, the day Parliament fell silent after learning about the Holocaust, how MPs have paid tribute to former prime ministers, and much more.

Now, I’m pleased to say there’s a ‘Since Attlee & Churchill’ podcast, hosted by Richard Johnson, an historian of the Labour Party and Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London, and me, Lee David Evans, an historian of the Conservative Party and the John Ramsden Fellow at the Mile End Institute, Queen Mary, University of London.

The idea is that each week we delve into a different topic in British political history, sandwiched in between a discussion of something that has caught our eye that week and also what we’re reading at the moment.

Episode one is already up and you can find it on most podcast platforms:

Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll have episodes covering:

• The prime minister who made a covert appearance in one of the late Queen’s Christmas broadcasts

• Peter Shore and constitutional socialism

• One Nation Conservatism

• Labour Zionism

• Ernest Marples, the man who gave Britain its motorway network

• The first Conservative leadership contest

• Labour and the Monarchy

• And more.

Subscribe on your favourite podcast platform to listen - and all feedback and reviews are welcomed!

We hope you enjoy listening to the podcast.

P.S. Still looking for a Christmas gift for the politico in your life? I recently compiled a list of the best books I read in 2024 - and the books I’m looking forward to reading. In case you missed it, here’s a summary:

Highlights of the books released this year.

• Unleashed by Boris Johnson. Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

• British General Election Campaigns 1830–2019 edited by Iain Dale. Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

• Kingmaker by Graham Brady. Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

• On the Back of an Envelope by Peter Hennessy. Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

Books for the socialist in your life…

• Great Britain? by Torsten Bell. Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s.

• Keeping the Red Flag Flying by Mark Garnett, Gavin Hyman & Richard Johnson. Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

• Years Of Hope: Diaries, Letters and Papers 1940-1962 by Tony Benn. Buy from Amazon UK

… and the Tory.

• Back from the Brink by Peter Snowdon. Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

• Truss at 10 by Anthony Seldon and Jonathan Meakin. Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

• Blue Jerusalem by Kit Kowol. Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

General history.

• Uproar! By Alice Loxton. Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

• All In It Together by Alwyn Turner. Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

• OUT by Tim Shipman. Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

Something completely different.

• The Wager by David Grann. Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

And 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. Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

• Failed State: Why Nothing Works and How We Fix It by Sam Freedman. Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

• Lowborn: Growing Up, Getting Away and Returning to Britain’s Poorest Towns by Kerry Hudson. Buy from Amazon UK | Buy from Blackwell’s

Finally, thank you for being a subscriber - whether paid or free - to ‘Since Attlee & Churchill’. I wish you a very happy Christmas.

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.