Head of Zeus seizes book about inequality and wealth by MP Byrne

Head of Zeus has seized a second non-fiction book from Liam Byrne, Member of Parliament for Birmingham Hodge Hill.

Publishing director Richard Milbank acquired word all-language rights to The Inequality of Wealth: Why it Matters and How to Fix it from Georgina Capel Associates. The book will be published 4th January 2023 in both hardback and e-book formats.

The book explores how owning assets for generations has fostered inequality as some have grown wealthier while others have had to rely on wages throughout their lives. The synopsis says: "In The Inequality of Wealth Liam Byrne offers a vivid and compelling account of today’s wealth inequalities and their profound implications, before exploring how we reached such disequilibrium through the ideology of ‘market supremacism’ and the working of the ‘privilege cycle’.

"In conclusion, he offers practical suggestions for a rebalanced UK economy, in which everyone has a rightful share in the nation’s wealth. Throughout the book, Liam Byrne makes clear that achieving a ‘democracy of wealth’ is not only vital to economic growth and the prospects of future generations, but also underlies the very stability and functioning of a free society."

Byrne chairs the Global Parliamentary Network on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and sits on the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee. He served in the Cabinet in 10 Downing Street and Her Majesty’s Treasury. An honorary professor of social science at the University of Birmingham, he was a Fulbright scholar at the Harvard Business School and Gwilym Gibbon Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford.

As an MP, for the last 19 years, he has represented Birmingham Hodge Hill, the most income-deprived community in Britain, and is the author of a major history of British capitalism Dragons: Ten Entrepreneurs Who Built Britain (Head of Zeus).

He said: “With a general election drawing ever closer, people are desperate for answers to the biggest question in British politics: how do we change course and build, not simply a richer country, but a fairer country where people have the freedom, security and power to live the lives they choose. I’m now convinced the answer is the renaissance of an idea that once inspired people of all persuasions: the wealth-owning democracy."

Milbank added: “Liam has one of the most creative intellects on the Labour benches. He is someone who not only cares passionately about the alleviation of poverty, but has pondered the practical ways of bringing about a more just and equal society throughout his career as a minister and an MP. It is an enormous pleasure to be working with him again.”