Israel Maurice Edelman (2 March 1911 – 14 December 1975) was a

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

-born

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Labour Party politician and novelist who represented

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

constituencies in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

for over 30 years.

Early life

Maurice Edelman was born in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

in 1911.Biography in Penguin Books edition of 'The Minister' 1964 His parents came to Wales in 1905, escaping the

pogroms A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russian ...

Tsarist Russia Tsarist Russia may refer to: * Grand Duchy of Moscow (1480–1547) *Tsardom of Russia (1547–1721) *Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of ...

. His father was a photographer. He was educated at

Cardiff High School ) , established = 1895 (Creation of earliest of predecessor schools) , closed = , type = Public (magnet) secondary , religious_affiliation = , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Stephen Jones , r ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, where he was an Exhibitioner in Modern Languages (French, German and later Russian). He joined the plywood industry in 1931 as a company director and at the outbreak of the Second World War was engaged in research into the application of plywood and plastic materials to aircraft construction.

Writing career

Edelman was a prolific journalist and author of several works of fiction and non-fiction. His novels include ''A Trial of Love'' (1951), ''Who Goes Home?'' (1953), ''A Dream of Treason'' (1954), ''The Happy Ones'' (1957), ''A Call on Kuprim'' (1959), ''The Minister'' (1961), ''The Fratricides'' (1963), ''The Prime Minister's Daughter'' (1964), ''All on a Summer's Night'' (1969), ''Disraeli In Love'' (1972) and ''Disraeli Rising'' (1975). His non-fiction works include ''France: The Birth of the Fourth Republic'', and a biography of David Ben Gurion. He also produced screenplays for television broadcasts during the 1960s and 1970s. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he worked for ''

Picture Post ''Picture Post'' was a photojournalistic magazine published in the United Kingdom from 1938 to 1957. It is considered a pioneering example of photojournalism and was an immediate success, selling 1,700,000 copies a week after only two months. ...

'' as a war correspondent in North Africa and Italy.

Political career

At the 1945 election Edelman was elected as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for Coventry West. In 1950 he won the new seat of Coventry North. He was a vice-chairman of the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

and chairman of the Franco-British Parliamentary Relations Committee. He was a founder member of the Council of Europe in 1949. A lifelong

Francophile A Francophile, also known as Gallophile, is a person who has a strong affinity towards any or all of the French language, French history, French culture and/or French people. That affinity may include France itself or its history, language, cuisin ...

, Edelman was appointed Officier de la

Légion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

in 1960, having previously been awarded Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1954. Following further boundary changes in 1974, Edelman represented Coventry North West until his death. His successor was

Geoffrey Robinson Geoffrey Robinson (born 25 May 1938) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Coventry North West for 43 years, from 1976 to 2019. He was Paymaster General from May 1997 to December 1998, resigning after ...

, who won a by-election on 4 March 1976. He appeared on the live television panel show ''What's My Line?'' from New York on 29 April 1962. He was also president of the Anglo-Jewish Association, and an active member of the Friends of the Hebrew University. He died on 14 December 1975 at the age of 64.

References

* ''

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'' * ''

Who was Who ''Who's Who'' is a reference work. It is a book, and also a CD-ROM and a website, giving information on influential people from around the world. Published annually as a book since 1849, it lists people who influence British life, according to i ...

External links

*
Catalogue of Edelman's papers
held at the

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick The Modern Records Centre (MRC) is the specialist archive service of the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, located adjacent to the Central Campus Library. It was established in October 1973 and holds the world's largest archive collecti ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edelman, Maurice 1911 births 1975 deaths Writers from Cardiff Jewish British politicians Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Politicians from Cardiff British people of Polish-Jewish descent Welsh Jews UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979