Charles Kennedy

Originally published to huge acclaim in 2006, this edition has been fully updated and includes new material culminating in the Liberal Democrats' disastrous 2015 general election and Kennedy's tragic death in June 2015.

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Charles Kennedy's death in June 2015 provoked an outpouring of grief throughout the nation. Parliament stood united, with politicians from all sides offering heartfelt tributes to a man they recognised as one of the great parliamentarians of the age. A talented strategist and an intuitive media performer and communicator, Kennedy led the Liberal Democrats during a remarkably successful period in the party's history to achieve the best result for a third party in more than eighty years, at the general election of 2005. He emerged with credit from the merger of the SDP and the Liberal Party in 1988 and was tipped as a future leader of the new party. His achievements once he became leader were considerable. He broke with the strategy of his predecessors to step out from Labour's shadow and to establish the Liberal Democrats as an independent and growing political force. As Britain prepared to invade Iraq, he became the first opposition party leader to oppose British military action since Hugh Gaitskell led protests against the Suez campaign in 1956. But persistent worries circulated privately about his health, with growing rumours of a barely managed drinking problem.At first, senior party members tried to support him, but after a series of calamitous performances in public and private, Kennedy was forced to relinquish leadership of his party.
This is the gripping story of a talented and courageous politician who struggled with the illness of alcoholism. Originally published to huge acclaim in 2006, this edition has been fully updated and includes new material culminating in the Liberal Democrats' disastrous 2015 general election and Kennedy's tragic demise in June 2015.