On Saturday, Keighley Local Studies Library was able to showcase one of its wonderful collections to another enthusiastic audience. This time it was the Lord Philip and Lady Ethel Snowden library and archive that we could highlight with the event of a book launch of a new edition of Philip Snowden’s vitriolic autobiography, edited by the author Alexander Clifford.
“Alex” Clifford is a history teacher as well as speaker and author of other historical works. He has written books on the Spanish Civil War and Hindenburg Ludendorff & Hitler, Germany’s generals and the rise of the Nazi’s.
Originally written in 2 volumes, Philip Snowden’s newly edited autobiography edition comes in a handy single volume format. The event itself consisted of a talk and photographic presentation by Alex Clifford about Philip Snowden’s life, values, interests and motivations and of course his controversial crossing from Labour to Conservative during the National Government of 1931 when he was expelled from the Labour Party.
The talk was followed by an expert panel discussion with questions from the audience to follow. We were privileged to have the well known authors and experts: Keith Laybourn and Andrew Thorpe: Professor Keith Laybourn is the president of the Society for the Study of Labour history and author of the leading biography of Philip Snowden. Professor Thorpe is Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Culture at the University of Leeds and author of ‘The History of the Labour Party’.
The Event was chaired by Will Barber-Taylor who is Deputy Director of the Centre Think Tank, he is a political writer and podcaster who is currently producing a new documentary on Snowden.
The audience responded well and there was a high calibre of questions from attendees who were clearly familiar with Snowden’s life and politics. The volatility of the times was also considered in the first quarter of the 20th century with the rise of “revolutionary socialism” as well as “evolutionary socialism”, World War 1 and the subsequent years of depression, testing times for any government and certainly any chancellor. Amongst the audience were a national newspaper journalist and a former government adviser.
Such events show the continued popularity of local history study and debate and help to highlight the value and importance of local study library collections that reveal the human experience and development of our communities.
We would like to thank all those who attended. Two new leaflets have been produced by library staff on the Snowdens and our collection in Keighley and will be in our guide section on this web site shortly.
A good number of copies of the new book were sold and there was a request for a similar event in the future, regarding another Keighley political figure in recent history.
“Britain’s Iron Chancellor, Philip Snowden, An Autobiography”, edited by Alexander Clifford (is available from all good bookshops, priced £25 and will be available soon in Keighley Local Studies Library for reference, later for loan (Pen & Sword Books Limited, Barnsley, 2024, ISBN 978 1 39902 495 2).
