On the Back of an Envelope

One of Britain’s foremost constitutional experts, Peter Hennessy has spent his five-decade career unpicking the arcane world of Whitehall and Westminster as a journalist, prize-winning historian, and political commentator. In doing so, he has chronicled the workings of the British state with wit, affection, and a healthy sense of the absurd.

In On the Back of an Envelope, he reflects on his time observing post- war Britain and its governance, considering the making and unmaking of prime ministers from Attlee to Truss, the role of the Monarchy, and the changing constitutional landscape in the wake of Brexit and in the midst of uncertainty about the Union. Interspersed with lectures, journalism, and new pieces, Hennessy looks back at a fascinating career, reflecting on his own experiences in the hard-nosed world of Fleet Street in the 1970s and bringing to life a cast of characters from a world now largely gone. He also revisits his time as a public historian, academic, and crossbench peer with a levity reflected in his belief that history is ‘gossip with footnotes’.

PETER HENNESSY is the Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary University of London and an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge. He is the author of Never Again: Britain 1945–1951 (winner of the NCR Award and the Duff Cooper Prize), Having it So Good: Britain in the Fifties (winner of the Orwell Prize), and Winds of Change: Britain in the Early Sixties, as well as the bestselling The Prime Minister and The Secret State. Hennessy was made an independent crossbench life peer in 2010.

POLLY COUPAR-HENNESSY lives in Sheffield and works in educational publishing. This is her first contribution to a book as a co-author.