Dare to Be a Daniel

Then and Now

Author:

Tony Benn

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In Dare to be a Daniel, which serves as a prelude to his eight volumes of published diaries, Tony Benn sets out the influences and events which shaped his early life. This gentle and endearing memoir exposes the foundations on which the passionate and firmly held political beliefs for which he is so famous are built.

Benn was first elected to the House of Commons in 1950, aged 25. Having successfully renounced the peerage he had inherited from his father in 1960, Benn went on to become the longest serving Labour MP of all time, retiring in 2001 "to devote more time to politics". He described himself in 1960 as "not a reluctant peer, but a persistent commoner", and this book reveals the extent to which he is truly a hereditary politician.

Born into a family with a long history of political involvement, Tony Benn's father and both his grandfathers were Members of Parliament. Benn is obviously enormously proud of his ancestors, of whom he writes warmly and enthusiastically. With political blood coursing through his veins, and a childhood dominated by politics, it seems oddly appropriate that the family home where Benn was born and brought up - 40 Grosvenor Road, (now known as Millbank) - should be the very site where Millbank Tower, the head of New Labour, now stands.

Benn describes a comfortable, upper middle class London upbringing, in a close-knit family with strong Christian and dissenting convictions. Benn's relationship with his politician father William is particularly revealing. The influence of the stern, charismatic father and dedicated MP on the young Benn, both personally and politically, is immense and clearly long lasting.

William was a Victorian, born in 1877, and to the modern reader seems rather strict and puritanical. Extra pocket money was given to Benn on the condition that he "submitted his accounts promptly"; he was expected to keep a daily time chart like his father, and was constantly reminded not to waste time or money. William Benn's obsessive cataloguing of personal documents and articles from The Times was surely a catalyst for his son's famous propensity for keeping a diary. Both men, writes Benn, remained teetotal; both men became more left wing with age.

As a young boy, through his father, Benn met Ramsay Macdonald and Mahatma Gandhi. He recalls being involved in the 1935 general election (aged ten) and describes his first visit to the House of Commons at the age of twelve. A 'political paper' on disarmament, written by an eleven-year-old Benn makes intriguing reading.

Revealingly, probably due to his father's reluctance to waste money, Benn says: "I never remember being taken to a concert or the theatre, except once to see Peter Pan. Although we lived next to the Tate Gallery, I cannot even recall having been inside." Elsewhere he admits to having "lived in the oral tradition", preferring listening and watching to reading. Dare to Be a Daniel ends with a selection of Benn's political essays and speeches, and it is here that we are reminded of his great power and skill as an orator. Here too, is clarified the influence of figures and events from Benn's childhood, as described in the main body of the book, on his political views today.

The second half of this book - containing Benn's speeches and essays - is better written than the biographical first half, which tends to be rather repetitive in parts. However, overall it is a tender and touching memoir, where we see the growth of a political icon of our time; the devout schoolboy who would become "the most dangerous man in Britain" and, ultimately, a national treasure of today - still outspoken, still iconoclastic and utterly passionate about his beliefs.

Reviewed by Vicky Aldus

Extent	256 Pages	Sub. No.
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Format	Hardback
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