Maurice Glasman was born in Walthamstow, London in 1961. The third of four children. He went to JFS Comprehensive School, then studied History at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge. He did his doctorate at the European University Institute in Florence. He has written two books: Unnecessary Suffering, and Blue Labour. He was made a Labour Peer in 2011, becoming the Lord of Stoke Newington and Stamford Hill. He has written on the theme of paradox, particularly the relationship of tradition to modernity. He is married with four children and lives in Stoke Newington.