Teddy Boy Blue - Softcover

'The Scotsman who won the heart of Southend. Sir Teddy's autobiography is as frank and honest as the author. You wouldn't expect any different. ' Times Group, 16 December 2008. 'It is good to have Sir Teddy Taylor back again, even if only in the shape of a book. With a force like Sir Teddy, where the man and the gut belief are synonymous, where the man outside is the man inside, then life story and principles are one and the same thing.' Tom King, Echo, 27 November 2008. '..required reading for all those who aspire to Parliament as it sets out the day-to-day life of a back bencher in great detail - [and for] all British voters as it describes the hard, often hundrum, work carried out by the majority of the nation's elected representatives at both national and local level.' Tilting at Windmills, 21 May 2009.

On visits to Scotland, 28 years after leaving Glasgow, Teddy Taylor is still greeted with cries of "I know who you are!" Despite being away for so long, he always seems to be recognised. Modest and self-effacing, he is remembered fondly by many across Scotland who could not support his politics, but admired and respected his commitment to his constituents, a philosophy he continued in Rochford and Southend until his retirement. Here is the man who climbed out of a graveyard with Enoch Powell, who asked Norman Tebbit not to tell people that he was a Conservative, who initiated contact with Libya during its period of isolation, who resigned from Ted Heath's government over the Treaty of Rome, and who, along with seven other M.Ps, was expelled from the Conservative Party for a period of time by John Major. This gentle autobiography of a schoolboy who fell into politics, then served forty one years of his working life as an M.P. in Scotland and England, will surprise and fascinate those who respect integrity and hard work. It must also intrigue young people who are thinking of following a political career.