Kenneth Baker

writer, member House of Lords

Kenneth Baker was born in 1934 and educated at St. Paul's and Magdalen College, Oxford. He entered Parliament as Conservative MP for Acton in 1968, beginning a long Parliamentary career which included serving as Environment Secretary, Education Secretary and Home Secretary. As Education Secretary he was responsible for the introduction of the National Curriculum, City Technology Colleges and Grant-Maintained Schools. Retiring from the House of Commons at the 1997 General Election, he joined the House of Lords. Kenneth Baker's publications include five anthologies of poetry and a volume of memoirs, *The Turbulent Years* and two cartoon histories, *The Prime Ministers* and *The Kings and Queens*. *The Faber Children's History in Verse* was published in Spring 2000 and a new anthology, *The Faber Book of Landscape Poetry* in autumn 2000. Kenneth Baker is founder and Chairman of Belmont Press, a company which specialises in fine limited editions of contemporary writing.