January 16, 1997 Lord Jenkins To Speak at the Library About Politicians and Their Reading

Roy Jenkins (Lord Jenkins of Hillhead), the author of a recent award-winning biography of British prime minister William Ewart Gladstone, will present a talk on "Politicians and Their Reading" at the Library of Congress at 6 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 10. His presentation, part of the Center for the Book's "Books & Beyond" lecture series, will be held in the Mumford Room on the sixth floor of the Library's James Madison Memorial Building. It is free and open to the public.

A British bestseller, Gladstone, won the Whitbread Award for biography, the highest honor of its kind in Great Britain. The book is being published in the United States in February by Random House.

Roy Jenkins is a scholar and statesman who has served in British Labour governments as home secretary and chancellor of the exchequer. He also has been president of the European Commission. He is currently the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, the chancellor of Oxford University, and president of the Royal Society of Literature. A prolific writer, his books include A Life at the Center: Memoirs of a Radical Reformer (Random House, 1991) and biographies of President Harry Truman and British Prime Ministers H. H. Asquith and Stanley Baldwin.

The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress was established in 1977 to stimulate public interest in books and reading. Its projects and publications are supported primarily by private contributions from individuals, corporations, and foundations.