Ken Livingstone was born in South London. When he left school he wanted to spend the rest of his life working at London Zoo and never expected or wanted to be a politician. But with no vacancies at the zoo, he ended up instead in the political jungle working with bizarre beasts, many of whom are now fortunately extinct.
At his first-ever council meeting he introduced a pensioners’ travel pass. Later he built council homes, cut fares, met the IRA, championed equalities and lost his job when the GLC was abolished. This might have been enough for one political life, until he decided to do it all over again as Mayor of London, putting two fingers up to Tony Blair in the process. He still lives in London.
Author photo © Jonathan Root
