Members Behaving Badly: A History of Britain in 52 Parliamentary Rogues by Deborah Kilroy COMING 26 FEB

Hardback
Elliott & Thompson
26 February 2026

Over the centuries, the House of Commons has been full of MPs standing up against tyranny; remarkable people doing remarkable things for the good of all. Yet there have been just as many cheats and liars who have played games, played the markets and played the people who put their trust in them.
Members Behaving Badly tells the story of our nation from 1603 to 1945 through 52 of these parliamentary villains: abusers, kidnappers and murderers, violent men doing violent deeds, often using parliament as a front and excuse. These are the MPs who made history – for all the wrong reasons.
There’s rake and poet Sir Charles Sedley, whose illicit partying while sozzled and stark naked on a tavern balcony caused a sensation even in Restoration London; the stock-jobbing, flip-flopping chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Townshend, who proposed taxes that sparked a revolution; David Lloyd George, Britain’s saviour during the First World War, but whose avarice, corruption and abuse of honours ruined his political party forever; and many more.
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