Red Queen: the Authorised Biography of Barbara Castle

Barbara Castle was the person most people expected to be Britain's first woman Prime Minister: the most colourful, the most successful and the most controversial woman in British politics. Everyone had an opinion about her, whether they thought she was a dangerous subversive or a national heroine. Drawing on much previously unpublished material, this warm and human portrait of one of the most vivid personalities of the post-war era examines the battles she fought and the weapons she used in what was less of a career than a crusade. Anne Perkins's compelling biography is the inside story of what it was really like for a woman in twentieth-century British politics and public life.