Red Queen: The Authorized Biography of Barbara Castle

Until the arrival on the political stage of Lady Thatcher, Castle was the most vivid, the most successful and the most controversial woman in British politics. A Labour activist from her childhood, she became active in party politics in her early twenties, whilst at the same time breaking into political journalism. Thirty years later she was the unexpected success of Harold Wilson`s first administration, rising from a junior position to the inner cabinet in less than five years. But her radicalism, her flamboyant style and ultimately perhaps, her gender caught up with her and she was frozen out. Since her death at the age of ninety-one, she has been rightly regarded as a woman who could have achieved even greater power, had the boys` club cabal running the Labour Party not prevented her from doing so.