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| A political match made in heaven |
Jill Craigie may have been the great woman
behind Michael Foot, but she was never overshadowed, says Ilttyd
Harrington
To Be A Woman, the Life of Jill Craigie
by Carl Rollyson. Aurum, £20
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Jill and Michael pictured in a cottage in Leatherhead in
1959
A publicity shot of Jill taken in 1943. The picture is a
favourite of Michael’s
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MICHAEL Foot and Jill Craigie were comrades in arms for more
than 50 years. It was a union that blossomed in the golden hope
of the 1945-50 years, fuelled by their mutual passion and faith
in the coming Socialist Common Wealth.
As in all great love stories they occasionally bruised and hurt
each other. This biography by Carl Rollyson an American academic,
skillfully marries their personal and political careers. She, a
beauty, innovative film maker, feminist, cook, journalist, and one
of Hampstead’s prime hostesses in their home at Pilgrim’s
Lane.
Michael was the favourite disciple and heir to Nye Bevan the architect
of the NHS.
Jill believed that up until the disastrous General Election of 1983
that he would be the Prime Minister.
She was born in 1911, she claimed 1914. Her mother Sonya, placed
her in 13 different schools, but not even the nuns could programme
this headstrong girl. Until one inspirational teacher gave her George
Bernard Shaw’s book, The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to
Socialism. That and the creative ideas of William Morris plus the
wit of Oscar Wilde set her on a political journey from which she
never deviated.
In 1928, at 17 she came to London and captivated a stream of bright
and influential men. She married twice before Michael, producing
Jenny a daughter who later excited the passions of Sean Connery
and Spike Milligan. Jill attracted the attention of Malcolm MacDonald,
the son of Labour’s first Prime Minister.
While he went off round the world on diplomatic missions, she took
over his Hampstead House in Frognal Lane from where she performed
her air-raid warden duties.
Jill’s determination to make relevant documentaries was perhaps
an underestimated achievement.
Her first film ‘Out of Chaos’ starred Graham Sullivan,
Stanley Spencer and the sculptor Henry Moore.
She was seized by an interest in town planning and the need for
decent post war housing. She was not to be tangled with.
As late as 1967, she tore into Camden’s Council with High Rise.
The film ‘Who are the Vandals’ is sadly prophetic particularly
about the Regent’s Park Estate.
Michael and Jill met in bomb-blasted Plymouth in 1945. He was fighting
for a Parliamentary seat, she treading on bureaucratic corns and
the Astor family who controlled most of the city.
She thought it right to demand a better designed city and set her
ideas out in the film ‘The Way we Live Now’.
The people of Plymouth were given a powerful platform.
Hampstead beckoned them back and they were married here at the registry
office on October 21 1949. They played a central role among the
glittering firmament of Left talent gathered here, believing the
future they advocated was achievable.
After the defeat of the Atlee government in 1951, a battle for the
soul of the Labour Party began.
Michael lost Plymouth by 100 votes in 1955. And the deep schism
within Labour was becoming crystallised. This was evident in the
campaign around CND.
Jill was an uncompromising unilateralist, as was Michael. Almost
single-handedly he kept the left wing journal Tribune going. Often
with handouts from Tory Lord Beaverbrook, the right wing owner of
the Daily Express.
Their home became the political salon of the left. Jill’s superb
cooking did not dim her ardour or argumentative nature at the dinner
table. Barbara Castle often incurred her wrath or scorn.
Michael succeeded on Bevan’s death to the Ebbw Vale constituency.
In 1948, she made Blue Scar in which actual miners played their
daily roles. Coming back from there in October 1963, she almost
died in a horrific car crash. But their spirit refused to be crushed.
During the Wilson years – 1964-76 – she continued to support
Michael in his relentless round of meetings and writings.
She never compromised too much and her major writing Daughters of
Dissent was perhaps a seminal book on the Suffragettes and the controversial
Pankhurst family.
The book retells a horrific incident in her life. Jill was raped
by a family friend, the Hungarian writer Arthur Koestler in 1954,
when he came to their home in Rosslyn Hill.
Michael confirmed it in an interview in April 1995. It must have
been a terrible silent burden for 40 years.
After Wilson exited in 1976, Michael stayed on in Callaghan’s
cabinet – a very able and dependable deputy leader.
After Callaghan left in 1980, Michael was elected leader of the
Opposition – heady days and nights in Pilgrim’s Lane ending
in a defeat in May 1983.
This stormy petrol of a woman and her dog-loving bibliophile husband,
went on crusading.
But in May 1999, she had a bad fall at home and eventually died
in the Royal Free Hospital in December 1999. The writer Francis
Wheen wrote to Michael of “a marvellously romantic adventure
you embarked upon together”.
And Carl Rollyson tells their odyssey with warmth and admiration. |
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