Ken: The Ups and Downs of Ken Livingstone
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| Author | Andrew Hosken |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Ken Livingstone |
| Genre | Non-fiction, Biography |
| Publisher | Arcadia Books |
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Publication date
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8 April 2008 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover & paperback) |
| Pages | x, 435 (first edition) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 254236065 |
| Preceded by | Nothing Like a Dame |
Ken: The Ups and Downs of Ken Livingstone is a 2008 biography of Ken Livingstone by British journalist and author Andrew Hosken. First published on 8 April 2008, the book's provisional title had been Ken: The Fall and Rise of Ken Livingstone.
The unauthorised biography, based on 30 hours of interviews with Livingstone, revealed that he had five children by three different women, previously unknown by the general public. The story was broken by the BBC just prior to publication of the book. Livingstone responded: "I don't think anybody in this city is shocked about what consenting adults do. As long as you don't involve children, animals and vegetables, they leave you to get on and live their own life in their own way. What happens in my private life is a matter solely for me and the people that share my private life."
Following the leak of the book's "major scoop" Arcadia Books was forced to bring forward publication (originally planned for 22 April 2008) and ordered an immediate reprint in expectation of "saturation press coverage" in the run up to the 1 May 2008 mayoral election in which Livingstone was standing against Boris Johnson and Brian Paddick. Livingstone nevertheless attended the book's launch party at Foyles bookshop in Charing Cross Road, London, and said: "I gave Andrew Hosken 30 hours of time for interviews because I felt it was part of the accountability process. I think it was a fair account given Andrew's political stance."
The book additionally discussed Livingstone's links to Gerry Healy, an extreme Left-winger and leader of the Workers Revolutionary Party, and published documents alleging that Healy had received funding from Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein. Healy was responsible for printing the Labour Herald, edited by Livingstone and former Lambeth Borough Council leader Ted Knight in the 1980s. Livingstone told Hosken he "could not remember whether he ever asked [Healy] if he had taken money from regimes such as Libya but stressed he had not been aware of such links and had never personally accepted such funds."
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