Catalogue Number
NMLH.2024.64
Object Name
book
Title
'Wilson in Wonderland. A Chronicle by Jon.'
Place
Huddersfield
People
Harold Wilson, Labour Party, JON (artist), Daily Mail
Events
Harold Wilson's premiership
Description
A slim hardback fabric bound book. The front cover is yellow with red writing, the back cover is red with yellow writing. The title is 'Wilson in Wonderland. A chronicle by JON.' There is a caricature of Harold Wilson dressed as Alice in Wonderland in a checked pinafore over a blouse and striped tights with a black hair band holding back long blonde hair. It is recognisable as Wilson as he is smoking his trademark pipe.
The back cover explains that this is a collection of JON's satirical cartoons for the Daily Mail documenting Harold Wilson's term as Prime Minister. Wilson was Prime Minister twice - from 1964-1970 and 1974-1976, and is unclear if this book covers one or both of these terms in office. The Daily Mail, as a right wing newspaper, did not support Wilson's Labour Party, and the playful language on the back of the book, calling him an 'overlord' ruling over 'Blunderland' makes clear that this is intended as critical rather than supportive art.
Harold Wilson (1916-1995) was a Labour Party politician from Huddersfield. He was an MP from 1945-1983 and his first term in office saw significant liberalisations in the UK including the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality, making illegal some forms of racial discrimination, legalising abortion in England and Wales, widening access to divorce and birth control, and abolishing both censorship of the theatre and the death penalty. Many of these policies were viewed negatively by people on the Right, including the Daily Mail.
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