From Mill Boy to Minister; An Intimate Account of the Life of the Rt. Honourable J.R. Clynes, M.P. Hardcover – 14 October 2018

Well written.

There is a trend now of scanning the original manuscripts of old, out of print books, which rescues treasures such as this and preserves them for posterity. I approve of this. I was pleased to find this book, as I have some handwritten correspondence from JR Clynes which was sent to a relative of mine who worked for him. She thought he was one of the kindest and most honourable people she had ever met. His name came up also in some historical research I am doing for a novel I am writing and so I was intrigued to find out more about the man. This book was most helpful to me therefore. Being a book of its time, naturally the writing style is rather old fashioned, and perhaps even irritatingly 'chatty' but then I suppose I am more used to the objective style of modern day historians and researchers. Nonetheless, this book is, for my purposes, a little gem. It came very promptly too.

I bought this book because my Grandfather admired him and changed the family name from its Germanic spelling to Clynes. I knew nothing abour JR so read this book to find out more. The writing style is old fashioned as one would expect but gives a valuable insight into the man. He would appear to be a very honourable man seeking to get 'things done' rather than earning plaudits for himself as many of his colleagues did and in fact many of the current labour party still do.If this book is any way accurate JR sacrificed much of his own career for the common good. I believe that Grandfather chose an admirable role model.