The Politico's Book of the Dead

A collection of political notables - the weird and wonderful alongside the famous and infamous - have returned from beyond the grave to haunt the pages of The Politico's Book of the Dead. Harold Wilson, John Smith, Willie Whitelaw and Lord David Sutch are here, along with the even more fabled political giants Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey Appleby (their obituaries provided by the creators of Yes, Minister) and Labour Prime Minister Harry Perkins (by the man who knew him best, Chris Mullin, author of A Very British Coup). Those judged more critically by history include Oswald Mosley, Horatio Bottomley and John Stonehouse. But the less fabled also qualify, among them Sir Frederic Bennett, who believed that CND was a front for the KGB; Philip Piratin, the Communist MP for Mile End elected in 1945; Gordon Reece, who persuaded Margaret Thatcher to speak more softly; and Norah Runge, who sensationally took Rotherhithe for the Tories in 1931.