Judy Warschauer talks to former Parliamentary sketch writer Edward Pearce about his new book. LAST week I met a brilliant man. Edward Pearce is an author and journalist, particularly well-known for his eight years as the Parliamentary sketch writer on the Daily Telegraph.

His latest book, The Lost Leaders, published in paperback on October 1, vividly illustrates his political acumen, his ability for detailed research, his intellect, and his use of language, often succinct, to give a very human insight into the Palace of Westminster.

The Lost Leaders -- The Best Prime Ministers We Never Had is an enthralling study of Rab Butler, Denis Healey and Iain Macleod, their achievements, their mistakes, their foibles, and why they missed out on the premiership.

I started reading the biographical essay on Denis Healey, whom Mr Pearce greatly admires, the evening before I was due to meet him and I was still reading at way past midnight.

I couldn't do better than quote from the book to illustrate why.

On Healey: "He was a classics graduate who spent the first part of his life on international relations and the next section on defence and military matters. He came to economics as Shadow Chancellor in 1972 after two years as Shadow Foreign Secretary armed only with a Latin quotation from the 12th-century Bishop of London who had doubled as Treasurer; that, in the latter job, calculations are less important than judgements.

"He might also have recalled the words of Derby to Disraeli on his becoming Chancellor with no more experience of money than impressive debts: 'Oh, they give you the figures'."

Or: "Healey was indispensable, ready when called upon, a sort of stroppy West Riding Jeeves."

Edward Pearce, who was born in 1939, came to journalism in 1974, purely by chance, at the age of 35, an age now often considered over the hill for the job.

We met at his home near Wendover in a house which enjoys wonderful views of the Vale of Aylesbury where he lives with his wife Deanna. Their daughter, Cecily who has now flown the nest, works for Bristol film animators.

Educated at Darlington Grammar School and St Peter's, Oxford, where he read PPE (Politics, Philosophy and Economics), he then 'mucked about including teaching' until one day standing in a bus queue in South Shields, he popped into a newsagent to buy the Spectator.

Inside was a competition for a 6,000 word essay from an unpublished writer.

"It was at the height of all those crises. I had been a Labour candidate in Richmond, Yorks (he also stood in Blackpool South) and I wrote 6,000 words over two weekends calling it To Labour with Love."

Although he didn't win he received 'an honourable mention', but it was published anonymously in the Spectator later after he re-submitted it to the paper.

He recalls Dennis Skinner's reaction to the piece well. "The nicest thing Dennis Skinner ever did; denounced the work as that of Prof John Macintosh, one of the best academics on government."

It wasn't long before Mr Pearce decided to throw up his teaching in favour of coming south as a freelance journalist.

It was a decision that that was to lead to success as a political columnist -- contributing to The Sunday Times for nearly three years and the Guardian for five and, of course, as author of the Commons Sketch in the Daily Telegraph from 1979 to 1987 before being taken off the column for 'making guerrilla war on Mrs Thatcher'.

"My politics were shifting. I took the view that Mrs Thatcher was a good thing up to a point, but after that point got distinctly less good. She was getting authoritarian and paranoid and I tended to say so."

He also was removed from BBC Radio 4's The Moral Maze for 'not being left-wing enough for balance'.

But Mr Pearce regrets calling Wycombe MP, Sir Ray Whitney 'Twitney' in one Sketch column and says the two have since become friends.

He has also written sketches, profiles and the arts commentary in The Mail, the Times Literary Supplement, Evening Standard, and New Statesman He currently writes a regular column in the The Scotsman and will shortly become their London theatre critic, a job he describes as 'absolute perfection'.

Mr Pearce is as forthright today in his views of the present Parliament. "I loathe Blair who has limitless charm, but an ugly streak of authoritarianism. Prescott and Donald Dewar I respect very much indeed.

"I have very considerable time for William Hague. He has a good mind, reads books. What I see in Hague is intelligence, considerable wit and a sort of dryness."

But he warns. "If the Tories are looking for instant recovery they can forget it."

The emphasis of Mr Pearce's writing is now more on his work as an author, concentrating on political history. The Lost Leaders is the eigth book he has published and he is just completing his latest book on Edwardian Politics, a study of Irish Home Rule and the Parliament Act of 1911 to be published next April, and followed by the authorised life of Denis Healey.

Mr Pearce remains an avid reader -- the rows of tightly-packed bookshelves all around his home testify to that -- and when it comes to light reading, he says he enjoys a good detective story, naming John Harvey of the Charlie Resnick series, as his real hero.

"I read most things. I can't pass a secondhand bookshop without going in."

Classical music remains a great source of enjoyment. He never works without music in the background, naming Mozart, Strauss, Schubert, Bruckner, and Nielson among his favourite composers.

"I am politically turned off by Wagner and never really enjoyed Mahler. He wears his heart on his sleeve and kitsch is never far away."

Another dislike is avant-garde music, but he does have time for some contemporary composers, including Edmund Rubbra, particularly his fourth symphony.

"One job I have never done and would really like to do is to become a classical disc jockey, playing music I care about to other people.

"That is a job I would do for free." Radio 3 and Classic FM take note.

The Lost Leaders is published in paperback by Warner Books at £9.99

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