The Cripps Version
The Cripps Version
Regular price
Checking stock...
Regular price
Checking stock...
Summary
Viewed as capable of reaching the highest office, Sir Stafford Cripps was credited with the successful completion of crucial political missions. However, his austere persona was easy to caricature, most famously in a succint epigram by Churchill: "There but for the grace of God goes God".
The feel-good place to buy books
- Free US shipping over $15
- Buying preloved emits 41% less CO2 than new
- Millions of affordable books
- Give your books a new home - sell them back to us!

The Cripps Version by Peter Clarke
Like many 20th-century politicians of note, Cripps had the dubious honour of an epigram from Churchill: "There, but for the grace of God, goes God". The wit of the remark is in its accurate summation of Cripps' talents, and the personal failings that were to deprive him of the highest office. His image is associated with austerity - he was a vegetarian, a tee-totaller, a devout Christian, and very easy to caricature. Beginning his professional life as a lawyer, Cripps went on to become ambassador of Russia in 1940. In 1942 he was sent as special envoy to India; the report he wrote was to prove a watershed on that country's road to independence. In Labour's post-war administration, Cripps was President of the Board of Trade, and from 1947-50 Chancellor of the Exchequer. This biography was written with comlete access to Cripps' private and public papers.
This long-awaited biography, by one of Britain's leading historians, is the first to be written with complete access to Cripps's private and public papers
Peter Clarke has been Professor of Modern British History at Cambridge University since 1991 and Master of Trinity Hall since 2000. He has also been active in liberal politics, holding the position of Chairman of the SDP in Cambridgeshire. His previous publications include A Question of Leadership: From Gladstone to Blair and Hope and Glory: the Penguin History of Britain in the Twentieth Century.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780713993905 |
| ISBN 10 | 0713993901 |
| Title | The Cripps Version |
| Author | Peter Clarke |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Penguin Books Ltd |
| Year published | 2002-04-04 |
| Number of pages | 616 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |