Enoch Powell - H Books Author:Robert Pearce John Enoch Powell (1912â98) was the most controversial British politician of the second half of the 20th century. His 1968 speeches on immigrationâand especially the âRivers of Bloodâ speech at Birmingham on 20 Aprilâcreated a furor. This austere and forbidding figure, an intellectual in politics and a man with a reputation for unbending integri... more »ty, was suddenly the most popular man in Britainâbut also the most hated. Conservative leader Edward Heath immediately sacked him from the Shadow Cabinet for the âracialist toneâ of his speech. Hewas never to hold office again, though had the Tories lost the general election of 1970 Powell might well have replaced Heath as leader. Heath won in 1970, though to some degree because of Powellâs influence in the West Midlands.
Powell is a biographerâs dream. He was not only a politician buta distinguished scholar, philosopher, historian and poet. He was austere and yet undoubtedly charismatic, coldly logical and yet a romantic of strong passions. Even his private life is a rich source of interest: his first poems referred to a homosexual friendship and when he did find a girlfriend, at the age of 38, he was so inept that the object of his affections, Barbara Kennedy, had no idea that he had actually proposed.« less