Maurice Edelman

Maurice Edelman
Edelman in 1947
Member of Parliament for Coventry North West
In office 28 February 1974 – 14 December 1975
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Geoffrey Robinson
Member of Parliament for Coventry North
In office 23 February 1950 – 8 February 1974
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Member of Parliament for Coventry West
In office 5 July 1945 – 3 February 1950
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born	Israel Maurice Edelman (1911-03-02)2 March 1911 Cardiff, Wales
Died	14 December 1975(1975-12-14) (aged 64) London, England
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Matilda Yeager ​ (m. 1933)​
Children	2
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge
Profession	Author

Israel Maurice Edelman (2 March 1911 – 14 December 1975) was a British Labour Party politician, journalist, and novelist from Wales who represented Coventry constituencies in the House of Commons for over 30 years, from 1945 until his death.

Early life

Maurice Edelman was born to a Jewish family in Cardiff in 1911. His parents had come to Wales seven years earlier, escaping the pogroms in Tsarist Russia. His father was a photographer. He was educated at Cardiff High School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was an Exhibitioner in Modern Languages (French, German and later Russian). He joined the plywood industry in 1931 as a company director and at the outbreak of the Second World War was engaged in research into the application of plywood and plastic materials to aircraft construction. In 1933, he married Matilda "Tilli" Yeager, and they had two daughters.

Writing career

Edelman was a prolific journalist and author of several works of fiction and non-fiction. During the Second World War, he was a correspondent for Picture Post. His non-fiction works include France: The Birth of the Fourth Republic, and a biography of David Ben Gurion. He also produced screenplays for television broadcasts during the 1960s and 1970s. His novels include A Trial of Love (1951), Who Goes Home? (1953), A Dream of Treason (1954), The Happy Ones (1957), A Call on Kuprim (1959), The Minister (1961), The Fratricides (1963), The Prime Minister's Daughter (1964), All on a Summer's Night (1969), Disraeli In Love (1972) and Disraeli Rising (1975).

Political career

At the 1945 election Edelman was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Coventry West. In 1950 he won the new seat of Coventry North.

He was a vice-chairman of the British Council and chairman of the Franco-British Parliamentary Relations Committee. Staunchly Pro-European, he was a founding member of the Council of Europe in 1949. A lifelong Francophile, Edelman was appointed Officier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1960, having previously been awarded Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1954.

He appeared on the live television panel show What's My Line? from New York on 29 April 1962.

He was also president of the Anglo-Jewish Association, and an active member of the Friends of the Hebrew University.

Following further boundary changes in 1974, Edelman represented Coventry North West until his death, from an embolism, at Royal Brompton Hospital on 14 December 1975. His successor was Geoffrey Robinson, who won a by-election on 4 March 1976.

References

• Dictionary of National Biography
• Who was Who

External links

• Maurice Edelman at the Internet Broadway Database
• Catalogue of Edelman's papers, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick