At the first Labour Party Conference I attended (in 2003). I brought from the Politico's Bookshop, a heavy brown tome entitled The Dictionary of Labour Biography. Recently I have found myself dusting it down from one of my bookshelves and heavily browsing through it again.
Its a fascinating roller-coaster of a romantic story (if you are a Labour Party lover like me that is), bringing forth to life an array of heroes and villains within the Labour Movement over the past 125 years or so. By itself it has taught me much about some of the less known parts of Labour's history, it's members, it's struggles and it's successes. If you haven't read it, I warmly recommend it and you can purchase a copy here.
That said, I do like to dip into a horror story now and then, and so it is that I can't seem to find a copy of the Dictionary of Conservative Biography. I know it to exist and that Iain Co-Edited it, but if anyone knows where I could purchase one I would be grateful