5 books by women for the politically minded this summer

Amidst the increasingly serious world events this week, two small ripples in the force caught my attention: firstly, the (Baileys) Women’s Prize for Fiction announced the top 20 novels written by women cited as part of its #thisbook campaign. They asked people to say which book (written by a woman) had most affected them.

It turned out Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ was the winner.  Though given the gold-standard calibre of the top-20, it was the taking part, not the winning that mattered here.  And secondly, on Monday, LabourList featured a summer reading guide crafted solely of books written by men. Not so hot, LL.

So, in case you’ve room for 10 books rather than 5, here’s my recommendation of top reads to take away with you. They happen to have all been written by women.

Top of my list of recent books is Diane Coyle’s ‘GDP: A brief but affectionate history’.  It is a startling insight into that most ubiquitous of economic statistics: the national product.  If this concept is just a fact of the news cycle to you, then Coyle’s work will lead you through the quirks of history, and underlying philosophy behind the single number we all rely on to follow the vast dynamic web that is our economy.   Not just the story about how such measurement came to be, it tells how much we don’t know about how our economy works. It’s a lesson in humility, and a cautionary tale against policy overreach, that will have you both scratching your head and your synapses firing.

But if it’s a tale of exceptional British political women you want, get a copy of Barbara Castle’s autobiography, ‘Fighting all the Way’.  Set in an earlier political era, it explains Castle’s beginnings during the devil’s decade of the 1930s and the defining struggles of the Second World War. And then her famous role in winning the battle for equal pay.

But one of my favourite chapters is her telling of her time in the Ministry of Transport – herculean battles of competing interests to get investment for public transport.

There is this gem describing the conversation with Harold Wilson on her arrival into post: “Harold had said to me, ‘Your job is to produce the integrated transport policy we promised in our manifesto.’” Wilson added characteristically, “I could work something out myself given half an hour.” It is the flashes of personality from Labour’s past that make this book so compelling.

Similarly, though from the other side of the fence, Ann Leslie’s 2008 book, ‘Killing my own snakes’ about being a journalist, and foreign correspondent through the same time is worth reading.  Reading about her early days, this story tickled me, as she describes making contact with a bright, funny Liverpool boy called John Lennon. Until, “One day the editor told me: ‘Too many of these “Insects”, or whatever they call themselves, on your page.

‘Actually, as you know, they are called The Beatles.’

‘Don’t care what they’re called – sounds as if you are in their pay’” And after telling Brian Epstein that the editor wanted to shun future coverage, Leslie recounts: “Eighteen months later, The Beatles became the biggest group in the world, and Epstein never took my calls again.”

I’m not sure about Ann Leslie, but Barbara Castle was probably a feminist before that was a commonly used term, so I wonder what she might have made of today’s debates about feminism and its future?  For a sense of the journey that feminism has come on, it’s worth looking up Janet Radcliffe Richard’s ‘The Sceptical Feminist’. First published in 1980, it opens with the words: “This book is a battle on two fronts.” And proceeds to fillet out the underlying philosophy behind equality, steering a course away from both sexists and misogynists, and those who would sacrifice reason for radicalism.

And whilst we’re on feminism, when I want distraction from a plane’s turbulence, there is of course only one answer. The god-like genius ofCaitlin Moran, who thankfully, has a new book out: How to Build a Girl. Her last, ‘How to be a Woman’ was both hilarious and honest, so I can’t wait to pick up this one.

Happy summer, and good reading.