ALF Purcell, who became MP for the Forest in 1925, has been described as the Arthur Scargill or Bob Crow of his time.

His election caused a national sensation but the failure of the General Election in 1926 led to a dramatic change in his fortunes.

Purcell's story is told for the first time in a book by academic Kevin Morgan and he will be giving a free talk about the left-wing firebrand at the Forest Bookshop in Coleford.

Prof Morgan, who lectures in politics and contemporary history at the University of Manchester, said: "Like Arthur Scargill or Bob Crow, Purcell in the 1920s was the trade union leader whom anti-trade unionists most loved to hate.

"Just about every militant cause had his support, from the British Communist Party, whose founding resolution he had moved, to the furnishing and building guilds that sought to carry on production free of capitalists.

"Most of all, Purcell was associated with the new Soviet Russia, and in 1924 had headed a British delegation to Moscow that prompted an international outcry.

"When he went to America, leading newspapers called for his deportation. Others, however, like his Forest of Dean constituents, were just as steadfast in their support.

"When the General Strike was called over the treatment of the miners, Purcell was the man who chaired the national strike committee.

"When nine days later the strike was called off, and its leaders accused of a cowardly betrayal, Purcell alone of them had to return to the constituency of miners who had vested so much faith in him."

The free 40-minute lecture, based on the book Bolshevism, Syndicalism and the General Strike: The Lost International World of AA Purcell, will be held at the Forest Bookshop in Coleford on Thursday, March 20 at 6.30pm.