Peter John Hennessy, Baron Hennessy of Nympsfield, (born 28 March 1947) is an English historian and academic specialising in the history of government. Since 1992, he has been Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at

Queen Mary University of London Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and formerly Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public university, public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University ...

Early life

Hennessy was born in Edmonton, north London, son of William Gerald Hennessy and Edith, née Wood-Johnson. He comes from a large

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

family of Irish provenance. He was brought up in large houses requisitioned by the local council, first in Allandale Avenue and then in Lyndhurst Gardens,

Finchley Finchley () is a large district of north London, England, in the London Borough of Barnet. north of Charing Cross, nearby districts include: Golders Green, Muswell Hill, Friern Barnet, Whetstone, London, Whetstone, Mill Hill and Hendon. It is ...

, north London. He attended the nearby Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School, and on Sundays he went to St Mary Magdalene Church, where he was an altar boy. He was the subject of the first episode, first broadcast on 6 August 2007, of the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

series ''

The House I Grew Up In ''The House I Grew Up In'' is a BBC Radio series. The first episode of the first series was broadcast on 6 August 2007 on BBC Radio 4. With the presenter Wendy Robbins, each week an influential Briton explains some of their thoughts and memorie ...

'', in which he talked about his childhood. Hennessy was educated at St Benedict's School and then at a grammar school in

Ealing Ealing () is a district in west London (sub-region), west London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. It is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Pl ...

, west London. After his father's job led the family to move to the

Cotswolds The Cotswolds ( ) is a region of central South West England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper River Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and the Vale of Evesham. The area is defined by the bedroc ...

, he attended

Marling School Marling School is a grammar school with academy status for boys, with a co-educational Sixth Form located in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England. It is on the Cainscross Road, the main route out of Stroud towards the M5, and is situated next to th ...

, a

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

Stroud Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021. Sited below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the ...

, Gloucestershire. He went on to study at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

, where he was awarded a BA in 1969 and a PhD in 1990. Hennessy was a

Kennedy Memorial Scholar Kennedy Scholarships provide full funding for up to ten British post-graduate students to study at either Harvard University or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Susan Hockfield, the sixteenth president of MIT, described the scho ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

from 1971 to 1972.

Career

Journalism

Hennessy was a journalist for the ''Times Higher Education Supplement'' from 1972 to 1974. From 1974 to 1982, he wrote leaders for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', for which he was also the Whitehall correspondent. He was ''

The Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

'' lobby correspondent at Westminster in 1976. In June 1977, Hennessy accused

Donald Beves Donald Howard Beves (6 March 1896 – 6 July 1961) was an English academic whose subject was modern languages, and dean and later vice-provost of King's College, Cambridge. Life Beves was the son of Edward Leslie Beves, a prosperous Brighton tim ...

of being the "fourth man" in the

Cambridge Spy Ring The Cambridge Five was a ring of spies in the United Kingdom that passed information to the Soviet Union during the Second World War and the Cold War and was active from the 1930s until at least the early 1950s. None of the known members were e ...

(then-known participants were

Philby Philby can refer to the following people * St John Philby (1885–1960), British Arabist, explorer, writer and intelligence officer * Kim Philby (1912–1988), British intelligence officer and spy for the Soviet Union * Dell Philby, fictional chara ...

, Burgess, and

Maclean MacLean, also spelt McLean, is a Scottish Gaelic surname (Mac Gille Eathain, or, Mac Giolla Eóin in Irish Gaelic), Eóin being a Gaelic form of Johannes (John). The clan surname is an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic "Mac Gille Eathain", a ...

), but

Geoffrey Grigson Geoffrey Edward Harvey Grigson (2 March 1905 – 25 November 1985) was a British poet, writer, editor, critic, exhibition curator, anthologist and naturalist. In the 1930s he was editor of the influential magazine ''New Verse'', and went on to p ...

and others quickly leapt to the defense of Beves, considering him uninterested in politics. Hennessy wrote for ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'' in 1982. He was a regular presenter of ''

Analysis Analysis (: analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (38 ...

'' on BBC Radio 4 from 1987 to 1992. On 17 November 2005, he made
trenchant
appearance alongside Lord Wilson of Dinton before the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, 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 ...

Public Administration Select Committee The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee (PACAC), formerly known as the Public Administration Select Committee, is a committee appointed by the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. Its primary role is to scrutinize ...

on the publication of political memoirs. In July and August 2013 he was the interviewer for BBC Radio 4's ''Reflections'', a series of four biographical interview programmes featuring

Shirley Williams Shirley Vivian Teresa Brittain Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby (''née'' Catlin; 27 July 1930 – 12 April 2021) was a British politician and academic. Originally a Labour Party (UK), Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), she served in ...

Jack Straw John Whitaker Straw (born 3 August 1946) is a British politician who served in the Cabinet from 1997 to 2010 under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He held two of the traditional Great Offices of State, as Home Secretar ...

Norman Tebbit Norman Beresford Tebbit, Baron Tebbit, (born 29 March 1931) is a British retired politician. A member of the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet from 1981 to 1987 as Secretary of State for Employment (1981–1 ...

and

Neil Kinnock Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a Welsh politician who was Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1983 Labour Party le ...

. Hennessy continues to present the programme. On 17 April 2022, he was interviewed by BBC Radio 4's ''

Broadcasting House London Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. T ...

''. On the subject of the Metropolitan Police fines issued to

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He wa ...

for lockdown breaches during the

Partygate Partygate was a political scandal in the United Kingdom about gatherings of Government of the United Kingdom, government and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party staff during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, COVID-19 pandem ...

scandal, he said "I think we're in the most severe constitutional crisis involving a prime minister that I can remember."

Academic career

Hennessy co-founded the

Institute of Contemporary British History The Institute of Historical Research (IHR) is a British educational organisation providing resources and training for historical researchers. It is part of the School of Advanced Study in the University of London and is located at Senate Hous ...

in 1986. From 1992 to 2000, he was professor of

contemporary history Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from about 1945 to the present. In the social sciences, contemporary history is also continuous with, and related t ...

at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London. From 1994 to 1997, he gave public lectures as Professor of Rhetoric at

Gresham College Gresham College is an institution of higher learning located at Barnard's Inn Hall off Holborn in Central London, England that does not accept students or award degrees. It was founded in 1597 under the Will (law), will of Sir Thomas Gresham, ...

, London. From 2001, he has been Attlee professor of contemporary British history at Queen Mary, University of London. His analysis of post-war Britain, ''Never Again: Britain 1945–1951'', won the

Duff Cooper Prize The Duff Cooper Prize (currently known as the Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize) is a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of history, biography, political science or occasionally poetry, published in English or French. The prize was estab ...

in 1992 and the

NCR Book Award The NCR Book Award for Non-Fiction, established in 1987 and sponsored by NCR Corporation, was for a time the UK's major award for non-fiction. Closing in 1997 after a period of decline and scandal, it is best remembered as the forerunner of the Sam ...

in 1993. His study of Britain in the 1950s and the rise of

Harold Macmillan Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986), was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Nickn ...

, ''Having It So Good: Britain in the 1950s'', won the 2007

Orwell Prize The Orwell Prize is a British prize for political writing. The Prize is awarded by The Orwell Foundation, an independent charity (Registered Charity No 1161563, formerly "The Orwell Prize") governed by a board of trustees. Four prizes are award ...

for political writing.

Elevation to the peerage

Official portrait of Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield

On 5 October 2010 the

House of Lords Appointments Commission The House of Lords Appointments Commission (HOLAC) is an independent advisory non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom with oversight of some aspects of the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It has two roles: to recommend at least two peopl ...

said that Hennessy was to be a

crossbench A crossbencher is a minor party or independent politician, independent member of some legislatures, such as the Parliament of Australia. In the British House of Lords the term refers to members of the parliamentary group of non-political peers. ...

(non-political) peer. He was created a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

on 8 November 2010, taking the title Baron Hennessy of Nympsfield, of

Nympsfield Nympsfield is a village and civil parish in the English county of Gloucestershire. It is located around four miles south-west of the town of Stroud. As well as Nympsfield village, the parish contains the hamlet of Cockadilly. The population take ...

in the County of Gloucestershire. He was introduced to the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

on 25 November. "I'm terribly pleased and honoured", Hennessy said at hearing the news. "I hope I can help the House of Lords a bit on constitutional matters. I'll certainly give it my best shot." In August 2014, Lord Hennessy was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' opposing

Scottish independence Scottish independence (; ) is the idea of Scotland regaining its independence and once again becoming a sovereign state, independent from the United Kingdom. The term Scottish independence refers to the political movement that is campaignin ...

in the run-up to September's referendum.

Personal life

Hennessy is married with two daughters. He lives in London with his wife Enid. In September 2019, he stated in an interview that he had early-stage

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

. On 7 May 2023, Hennessy was the guest for BBC Radio 4's ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight audio recordin ...

''.

Bibliography

Hennessy is the author of numerous articles and of the following books: *''Cabinet'' (1986) Blackwell *''Whitehall'' (1989) Secker & Warburg (revised & extended in 2001) *''Never Again: Britain 1945–51'' (1992) Jonathan Cape (revised & updated in 2006) *''Pathways to the Pigeon Hole?: The Effectiveness of Official Inquiries'' (1993) University of Strathclyde *''The Hidden Wiring: Unearthing the British Constitution'' (1995) Gollancz *''Ready, Steady, Go!: New Labour and Whitehall'' (1997) Fabian Society *''The Blair Centre: A Question of Command and Control?'' (1999) Public Management Foundation *''The Prime Minister: The Office and Its Holders since 1945'' (2000) Allen Lane *''The Secret State: Whitehall and the Cold War'' (2002) Allen Lane (republished & extended in 2010, see below) *''Rulers and Servants of the State: The Blair Style of Government, 1997-2004'' (2004) Office for Public Management *''Having It So Good: Britain in the Fifties'' (2006) Allen Lane *''Cabinets and the Bomb'' (2007) Oxford University Press *''The New Protective State: Government, Intelligence and Terrorism'' (2007) Continuum *''The Secret State: Preparing For The Worst 1945–2010'' (2010) Penguin *''Distilling the Frenzy: Writing the History of One's Own Times'' (2012) Biteback *''Establishment and Meritocracy'' (2014) Haus Publishing *''Kingdom to Come: Thoughts on the Union Before and After the Scottish Referendum'' (2015) Haus Publishing *''Reflections: Conversations with Politicians'' (2016) Haus Publishing (expanded & reissued in 2020, see below) *''The Silent Deep: The Royal Navy Submarine Service Since 1945'' (2015) with James Jinks Allen Lane *''Winds of Change: Britain in the Early Sixties'' (2019) Allen Lane *''The Complete Reflections: Conversations with Politicians'' (2020) Haus Publishing *''A Duty of Care: Britain Before and After Corona'' (2022) Penguin *''The Bonfire of the Decencies: Repairing and Restoring the British Constitution'' (2022) Haus Publishing

References

Sources

'Corrected Oral Transcript of Oral Evidence presented to the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee on the publication of political memoirs on 17 November 2005 by Lord Wilson of Dinton and Professor Peter Hennessy'
7 December 2005. Retrieved 31 December 2005

External links

Archives of Peter Hennessy held by Queen Mary, University of London Archives

House of Lords official page

''The Guardian'' March 2004
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hennessy, Peter 1947 births Living people English male journalists English historians English people of Irish descent English Roman Catholics Fellows of the British Academy Harvard University alumni People from Finchley Academics of Queen Mary University of London Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge The Times people People educated at St Benedict's School, Ealing Crossbench life peers Academics of Gresham College People educated at Marling School Historians of the United Kingdom English constitutionalists English male non-fiction writers Honorary Fellows of the London School of Economics Peers recommended by the House of Lords Appointments Commission Life peers created by Elizabeth II