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Alan Johnson will be in conversation with Colchester MP Pam Cox talking about his book Harold Wilson : Twentieth Century Man: The Prime Ministers Series

This is a ticket-less event but must be booked and your name will be on the door. The venue is wheelchair accessible but we will need to know if you are a wheelchair user when you book

Alan’s concise biography of Harold Wilson was published by Swift Press in September 2024, and it won the prize of ‘Best Biography’ at the Westminster Book Awards.

Alan Johnson was General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union before entering Parliament as Labour MP for Hull West and Hessle in 1997. He served as Home Secretary from June 2009 to May 2010 after filling a wide variety of cabinet positions in both the Blair and Brown governments, including Health Secretary and Education Secretary. Until 20 January 2011 he was Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer.

His childhood memoir ‘This Boy’ was published by Bantam Press on 9 th May 2013. It won the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize, and the Orwell Prize, Britain’s top political writing award.   His second volume of memoirs, ‘Please, Mister Postman’, was published in September 2014 and won the National Book Club award for Best Biography. It was followed
by ‘The Long and Winding Road’, published in September 2016 which won the Parliamentary Book Award for Best Memoir.
Alan retired as an MP in 2017 after 20 years and five elections.

A fourth memoir about his love of music (‘In my Life – A Music Memoir’) was published in 2018.

Three years later, Alan’s first novel, ‘The Late Train to Gipsy Hill’ was published by Wildfire. It was followed in September 2022 by ‘One of Our Ministers is Missing’ and ‘Death on the Thames’ in March 2024, which completed his trilogy of thrillers featuring DCS Louise Mangan. Having spent eight years on the BBC’s ‘This Week’ sofa with Andrew Neil and Michael
Portillo, Alan then appeared regularly with Steph McGovern on Channel 4’s ‘Steph’s Packed
Lunch’ and is continuing his addiction to live television with appearances on ITV’s ‘This
Morning’.

Alan was appointed Chancellor of the University of Hull in June 2023 and lives in East Yorkshire with his wife Carolyn.