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Titles now available in paperback with free UK delivery |
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 | | | Worsted to Westminster : The Extraordinary life of the Rev Dr Charles Leach MP | | Genre: Biography | | Author: J.B. Williams |
Paperback | | ISBN: 978-0-9562523-0-2 | | Format: 13 by 20 cm | | Pages: 323 | | Paperback | RRP: £8.99 | Discount Price: £8.09 |  |
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Ebook | | File format: .pdf (Adobe acrobat - Portable Document Format) | | Format: A4 | | Pages: 212 | | PDF file size: 11.6Mb | | EBook | | £1.99 | |
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Sample Text |
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Synopsis |
Rev Dr Charles Leach was the one Member of Parliament who lost his seat for being of 'unsound mind'. Worsted to Westminster follows him from an eight year old in a Halifax worsted mill to his breakdown under the dual pressures of being a wartime Army Chaplain and a backbencher, enthusiastically supporting the great reforming Liberal government as it pushed through the Parliament Act, and the National Insurance legislation.
Though living in a slum, he escaped the mill to train as a clog and shoemaker. His rise came through the Methodist New Connexion, and later the Congregational, churches to become a prominent preacher, and his innovative Sunday afternoon lectures in Birmingham Town Hall were capable of attracting 4000 people. He still found time to write some 20 books, edit newspapers, and be a guide for Thomas Cooks conducting parties to the Holy Land. Against all the successes were a series of family tragedies, losing his mother when only five, and four of his six children.
Politics was another way to aid the poor and the 'working man', leading him to oppose Joseph Chamberlain's divisive tactics, and flirt with the newly formed Independent Labour Party. Returning to the Liberals he won Colne Valley, defeating the maverick socialist Victor Grayson. His involvement with so many causes gives a fascinating insight into the history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
There was far more to his life than his forced departure from Parliament, and Worsted to Westminster puts the record straight.
The book includes some 50 photographs and drawings to illustrate the subject. |
Biography |
J. B. Williams has a singular advantage in approaching this biography – he is the great-grandson of the subject. This has given him access to information and particularly to photographs which are not generally available. Though he had grown up knowing of Charles Leach's rise from the woollen mill to be an MP, he was unaware of the loss of the seat for being of 'unsound mind'. The discovery of this fact led him to investigate the subject and the vast amount of information he uncovered led to this biography. J. B. Williams has also written three novels, which are published by Darcy Press. |
Mr Darcy also suggests |
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