Fourth Among Equals [Hardback]

The Autobiography of Bill Rodgers

This book is OUT OF PRINT

You may be able to find a copy at ABE Books

Description of Fourth Among Equals

"As I walked around the centre of Stockton on the Friday morning, glowing with success, I found life remarkably normal and no queue of people waiting to shake my hand. But one woman, carrying her shopping basket, stopped me. 'Mr Rodgers?' she enquired, and I smiled warmly. ‘I just want you to remember that yesterday more voters wanted someone else as their MP than wanted you. Good morning.’"

With that advice ringing in his ears, Bill Rodgers entered Parliament at the Stockton by-election in 1962, and he has been at the front line of British politics ever since. Currently leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, he served as a minister in the cabinets of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan before leaving the Labour Party in 1981 to start the Social Democratic Party with Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams and David Owen.

In this long-awaited autobiography, Lord Rodgers gives his own account of the birth, life and disintegration of the SDP - his long and enduring friendship with Roy Jenkins, his frustration with Shirley Williams and his exasperation with David Owen. But Fourth Among Equals is about much more than the SDP. It is the candid chronicle of a long and distinguished political life.