Posted on 21 October 2011
From left: Huw Edwards, Lord Kenneth O. Morgan, Lord Morris, Paul Murphy MP and Michael White of the Guardian (Photo: Angharad Watkins)
The First Minister of Wales and Bafta-winning journalist Huw Edwards were among the notable figures to attend the launches of Lord Morris of Aberavon’s critically lauded autobiography.
Fifty Years In Politics and Law, the new autobiography of Lord Morris of Aberavon, was this week celebrated in two launch events, organised by its publishers the University of Wales Press.
On Monday 17 October, the House of Commons in London played host to the first launch event which was attended by a number of Lord Morris’s peers, luminaries in the field of law, MPs and literary enthusiasts. Speakers included the Rt Hon Paul Murphy MP; Bafta-winning journalist, Huw Edwards; Professor Lord Morgan; the University of Wales Vice Chancellor, Professor Medwin Hughes and Assistant Editor of the Guardian, Michael White.
Wales’s Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay was the venue for (18 October) Tuesday’s launch. Speakers there composed of The First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones AM, John Davies, Professor Peter Stead, the Rt Hon Lord Morris of Aberavon KG QC and Director of the University of Wales Press, Helgard Krause.
Having represented Aberavon as its Labour MP from 1959, Lord Morris retired as the longest serving Welsh MP in 2001. He is one of only a small handful of Labour ministers to have held office under Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Tony Blair.
His autobiography provides a fascinating insight into personalities and events encountered from childhood in mid-Wales, entry into politics in the late 1950s, appointment to Secretary of State for Wales in 1974 and the devolution era of the 1970s; and finally to his role as Attorney General for England and Wales at the end of the 1990s.
Extraordinary events such as his involvement in the decision to bomb Kosovo are included in the book, as well as his role in the development and implementation of devolution for Wales, and his tireless efforts to promote the Welsh language.
Speaking of his new book, Lord Morris said:
“My tale recounts the riding of two horses, politics and the law, for over fifty years and focuses on my relationship with the three Prime Ministers under whom I served – Wilson, Callaghan and Blair. Since all my life has been concerned with Welsh politics it traces the part I played and the development of the idea of devolution. In the last part I record my appointment as Attorney General and spell out the issues arising during my stewardship as Chief Legal Adviser to the Government and the war in Kosovo in particular.”
Today, Lord Morris is Chancellor of the University of Glamorgan, a position he has held since 2002.
/Ends
Fifty Years in Politics and the Law - Rt. Hon. Lord Morris £24.99 – Published by the University of Wales Press | HB| 9780708324189 | 234x156mm
Notes to Editors:
For more information on the University of Wales Press visit:
www.uwp.co.uk For press and media information, please contact Tom Barrett, Communications Officer, University of Wales:
t.barrett@wales.ac.uk 02920 376991