Books
Benn's first book, Death in the City, co-authored with Ken Worpole was an exploration of deaths at the hands of the police and in policy custody in London. Benn was a Founder Member and the first Chair of Inquest, the organisation set up to support the bereaved families following deaths involving the state.
Her first novel, Public Lives, published in 1995, was described by writer Margaret Forster as, remarkably sophisticated for a first novel. In 1998 Jonathan Cape published Benn's Madonna and Child: towards a modern politics of motherhood which caused some controversy. The reviewers for The Guardian and The Observer criticised the book, while the Literary Review called it, a reflective, rich and rewarding investigation into the ...conditions of mothers' lives. The Guardian featured Benn as one of a number of Britain's leading feminist writers at the time.
Benn co-edited, with Clyde Chitty, A Tribute to Caroline Benn: Education and Democracy (2004), collecting various papers relevant to the campaign for comprehensive education, an issue on which her mother had been a prominent campaigner.
Her second novel, One of Us, a story of two families set against the backdrop of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, was published in 2008 receiving several positive reviews. The Independent on Sunday chose it as a 2008 Book of Year, describing the novel as Extraordinary… an emotional and political tour de force. According to the Guardian, Benn is wonderful on the telling details of family life... [she] has succeeded in bringing the ancient themes of Sophocles up to date with a keen eye, a subtle intelligence, and an unwavering decency. The novel was shortlisted for a British Book Award.
School Wars (2011) is an investigation of the UK's post-war comprehensive education system and was widely reviewed and discussed. Anthony Seldon, writing in the Observer, called it a tremendous book. It is a passionate polemic about the most important policy divide of the day…[which] marks [Benn] out as one of Britain's foremost advocates of comprehensive education. In March 2012, the New Statesman publishes a dairy of Benn’s own 'school wars' in which describes the experience of debating with many of her major critics in the year subsequent to publication.
The Truth About Our Schools, co-authored with Janet Downs, challenged many of the myths perpetrated during the Coalition era about the aims and achievements of comprehensive education. Benn became the Chair of Comprehensive Future in 2014, serving in this role for four years. As Chair, she played a prominent role in opposition to Prime Minister Theresa May’s plans to expand grammar schools. Benn remains a Vice Chair of Comprehensive Future and sits on the Board of Forum, a journal advocating comprehensive education.
What Should We Tell Our Daughters? was published in 2013. Writing in the Independent Sheila Rowbotham described "Benn's writing as [...] profoundly reasonable, while infused with a spirit of creative rebellion, pleasure and fun". According to Financial Times "Benn grapples eloquently with character, self, confidence, anger, the unquantifiable but elemental traits that make us human". In a number of debates and meetings, Benn spoke widely about the themes of the book.
In 2018, Benn published Life Lessons: The Case for a National Education Service setting out a radical agenda for an education system that looks beyond raw results and obsession with exams.[1] Angela Rayner, who was then Labour’s shadow education secretary, called the book, an essential argument for an equal and fair education system, and a vital contribution to our National Education Service, one of Labour s flagship policy proposals.
In 2025, on the centenary of her father’s birth, Benn co-edited and wrote the introduction to a collection of his speeches, articles and writings. Entitled The Most Dangerous Man in Britain? The Political Writing of Tony Benn the book was shortlisted in the biography category of the Tenth Westminster book awards.
