Bryant, Chris(topher) 1962–

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Bryant, Chris(topher) 1962–

PERSONAL: Born January 11, 1962, in Cardiff, Wales; son of Rees and Anne Gracie (Goodwin) Bryant. Education: Graduate of Mansfield College (English), and Ripon College (theology).

ADDRESSES: Office—House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA, England; Christian Socialist Movement, Westminster Central Hall, London SW1H 9NH, England.

CAREER: Politician and author. Church of England, ordained priest, 1986; All Saints, High Wycombe, curate; Diocese of Peterborough, youth chaplain; Labour Party, election agent for candidate Frank Dobson, 1991, government development officer, 1993, general election candidate in Wycombe, 1997; Christian Socialist Movement chair and Hackney councillor, 1993–98; Common Purpose (educational nonprofit), London, manager, 1994–96; British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), head of European affairs, 1998–2000; British Minister of Parliament, representing Rhondda, Wales, 2001–, served on House of Commons Culture, Media, and Sport Committee and Joint Committee of the Lords and Commons on Reform of the House of Lords; elected chair Labour Movement for Europe, 2002. Associate, National Youth Theatre of Great Britain.

MEMBER: Fabians, Christian Socialist Movement, Amnesty International, MSF Union.

WRITINGS:

(Editor and contributor) Reclaiming the Ground, foreword by Tony Blair, Spire (London, England), 1993.

Possible Dreams: A Personal History of British Christian Socialists, Hodder & Stoughton (London, England), 1996.

Stafford Cripps: The First Modern Chancellor, Hodder & Stoughton (London, England), 1997.

SIDELIGHTS: Chris Bryant, a British politician, is a Christian socialist who believes that Christian ethics are necessary for a democratic, just society and like others who share his views, he is a members of the Labour Party. In addition to serving the church and filling the post of head of European affairs for the British Broadcasting Corporation, Bryant has supported nonprofit organizations and been active in liberal organizations and causes. He is also editor of Reclaiming the Ground, a collection of essays by both party members and nonpoliticians

History Today reviewer Mark Bevir wrote that with Possible Dreams: A Personal History of British Christian Socialists, Bryant studies Christian socialism "largely through the lives of its leading protagonists." Donald Sassoon agreed in the London Review of Books, calling the volume "a kind of Who's Who of Christian socialists, a rapid and dizzying tour of the central figures." New Statesman critic Paul Boateng called Possible Dreams "a work of vigorous scholarship, [and] a good read."

Stafford Cripps: The First Modern Chancellor is Bryant's biography of the lawyer who became solicitor general in Great Britain's Labour government in 1930. Already in his forties when he began his political career, Cripps became one of the three leading Labour politicians remaining in Parliament after the 1931 National Coalition landslide brought conservatives to power. Cripps was never comfortable with either the House of Commons or the Labour Party, and his involvement with far-left causes such as the Popular Front and the Socialist League ultimately got him ejected from the party. Cripps then traveled to India, where he found common ground with Indian resistance leader Mahatma Gandhi, and to Russia, a trip that led to his appointment as ambassador to Moscow from 1940 to 1942.

Robert Waller wrote in History Today that "there is no doubt that a fresh treatment of Cripps' life is necessary" and that "Bryant's book is clearly a labor of love, even if he is not totally enamoured of his subject's personality." New Statesman reviewer Brian Brivati called Stafford Cripps "a fluent, highly readable and engagingly personal book by one Christian Socialist on another. Bryant shows how, despite a rebellious past, Cripps become a highly effective minister, disciplined, like many former communists, in following his civil service briefs."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

History Today, May, 1997, Mark Bevir, review of Possible Dreams: A Personal History of British Christian Socialists, p. 57; January, 1998, Robert Waller, review of Stafford Cripps: The First Modern Chancellor, p. 56.

London Review of Books, October 31, 1996, Donald Sassoon, review of Possible Dreams, pp. 28-29.

New Statesman, March 19, 1993, Sarah Baxter, review of Reclaiming the Ground, p. 24; July, 1996, Paul Boateng, review of Possible Dreams, p. 47; October 3, 1997, Brian Brivati, review of Stafford Cripps, p. 45; December 9, 2002, Paul Routledge, "Labour MPs' Secret Tryst with Firefighters, a Hack's Quarrel, and the Vanishing Socialist," p. 14.