Jessie Ann Matthew’s portrait of the veteran Labour politician records a genial elder statesman, mellowed by age. In his youth Manny Shinwell was one of the 'wild men of Clydeside'; a determined and militant socialist who in 1921 served a five month prison sentence for incitement to riot. In 1935 he fought and defeated Ramsay Macdonald in one of the most bitterly contested election battles of the century. Lord Shinwell was an able minister in the two post war Labour Governments.