But evidence for the link quite apart from the missing "r" is shaky. Never mind: the documented facts about our Tavener are noteworthy enough. And as his biographer Geoffrey Haydon observes, he makes the perfect heir: both have filled churches with their music, and both dramatically switched their religious allegiance. IS the contemporary composer John Tavener descended from the Tudor musician John Taverner? He certainly likes to think so. But most of us try to withstand the heat in the kitchen because it is the most absorbing of occupations, and because, unlike Bryan, we are eternal optimists both for this country, and, in our case, for the Labour Party too.. We are all aware of Enoch Powell's dismal view, at the end of his biography of Joseph Chamberlain, that all political lives end in failure. But Gould still seems unaware of his error, and resorts instead (despite praising him elsewhere) to the now standard and incredible excuse of blaming Peter Mandelson for the poor press he received.Politics is a rough trade For every bouquet there is a skip full of brickbats.

Though he did, and does, possess presentational skills of the kind that his namesake Philip no doubt dreams about, he did not have political judgement in equal measure. It was because of this that he managed, in the end, to isolate himself, and from being right in the inside in 1987, took himself to the outside and beyond just seven years later.He began seriously to falter in the eyes of many colleagues when he prepared, as an alternative to the poll tax, a complex system combining rates and a local income tax administered by the Inland Revenue which single-handedly would have lost seats in the 1992 election. How on earth does he think any political party or whelk stall could be run, except by taking account of the collective view?But Bryan's second problem as a politician was more profound. He writes with reference to a 1988 Party statement on industrial policy that it "was not a complete statement of my views, since I was obliged to take account of what others said" Just so. I was proud to follow in their footsteps."But this book inadvertently explains why Bryan found it so frustratingly difficult to get people to accept the change he wanted First, he found working with others uncongenial.

And, at the end: "I discovered I was in essence a New World person .. my pioneer forbears ... had decided to leave the old world, disenchanted with its unwillingness to change ... I had higher hopes than I could persuade others to share" is how he opens. "Britain and the Labour Party seem content with a future which I am unwilling to accept ...