Arundel resident and former London councillor, Michael Ward, has new book published

‘Two typewriters that clicked as one’: the world of Beatrice and Sidney Webb: New biography by Sussex writer Michael Ward.

Michael explains: “Twelve years ago, I wrote a pamphlet marking the centenary of Sidney and Beatrice’s national campaign (1909-1911) to abolish the Poor Law. After the pamphlet was published, I started a joint biography of both Webbs. I seriously underestimated how long it would take. It’s exciting that the book has now been published.”

Michael’s book portrays the lives of Beatrice and Sidney. They founded three institutions which still flourish today – the London School of Economics (LSE), the Fabian Society, and the New Statesman. As campaigners against poverty, architects of the welfare state, early supporters of full employment policy, the National Health Service and much more, their influence on British society has been profound.

Michael describes their world – networks of friends and supporters, their literary and political salon, their political influence - as well as their lives and homes in London and later Hampshire – on the edge of what is now the South Downs National Park.

From her teenage years until the day she died in 1943, Beatrice wrote a diary, in which, alongside great political events, and acerbic judgments on everyone she encountered, she recorded her innermost emotions. The diary formed the basis for Beatrice’s two autobiographical books. It is also a central source for any biographer. In recent years the complete diary has become available online, via the LSE library.

The Webbs have sometimes been caricatured as dour political obsessives. But politics was not their whole life. They loved the countryside – Sussex and the Downs, but also Wales, the Lake District, and the west of England. They also appreciated the mountains of Bavaria and Switzerland. When they were first married, they were great cyclists; they remained enthusiastic walkers until they were in their eighties.

Beatrice and Sidney knew Sussex well. They stayed at Arundel, and at Beachy Head. They visited Maynard Keynes at Tilton, and Virginia and Leonard Woolf at Rodmell. In the First World War, when the battle of the Somme began, on 1 July 1916, they were staying in a rented house near Crawley. From Sussex they could hear the guns in France. On 2 July Beatrice wrote in her diary:

We hear from overseas the dull noiseless thud beating on the drum of the ear, hour after hour, day after day, telling of the cancelling out of whole populations on the vast battlefield.This is above all a human story, about an extraordinary married couple, a unique double act. They came from quite different backgrounds: Beatrice grew up in a grand country house in the Cotswolds, while Sidney’s mother ran a hairdressing salon off London’s Leicester Square. He was short and stout, while she was tall and graceful. Yet their personalities seemed to fuse together – a contemporary called them two typewriters that clicked as one.Readers concerned with poverty and social reform will enjoy this book: a riveting tale of two individuals and what they achieved together - their lives, their love for each other and their influence on their country.

People interested in history and politics - general readers and students alike – will find much to appreciate.

Michael plans to get out and talk about the Webb book at bookshops, literary festivals, historical seminars and conferences, and political meetings.

About the book

Sidney and Beatrice married in 1892 - but only after Beatrice had previously experienced a long, unhappy relationship. Their fifty-year partnership produced books and reports rather than children. Many of the reforms the Webbs demanded were enacted after their deaths. The hated Poor Law was abolished, and a National Health Service was established, transforming millions of lives. Michael Ward’s fascinating book details their methods: meticulous research, private persuasion and hospitality, barnstorming public campaigning, and hard political organisation. Their work is central to understanding change in twentieth century British politics and society.

About the author

Michael Ward studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at University College Oxford, and Economic and Social History at Birkbeck University of London.

Elected to the Greater London Council (GLC) in 1981, he led the GLC’s economic development work for five years. After the GLC was abolished, he moved to Manchester, where he set up and ran the Centre for Local Economic Strategies. In 2000 he returned to London as Chief Executive of the London Development Agency.

Michael and his wife Hilary now live in Arundel; they have two grown-up children.

Unceasing War on Poverty (RRP £ 25.00) was published by The Conrad Press and can be ordered from Amazon and all good bookshops.