The Art of Memory: Friends in Perspective

"Rab" Butler, who entered the House of Commons in 1929 and became a symbol of progressive Toryism, recalls some of his friends and colleagues, including Ernest Bevin, Lord Halifax, Nehru, and Aneurin Bevan, whom he considers "the greatest parliamentary orator since Charles James Fox." These rather rambling reminiscences contain some eloquent passages on individuals and on all manner of topics from education to poetry; they are supremely generous-to a fault.