The Empress of Australia by Harry Leslie Smith

He added: 'He'll learn he has to put some more weight behind it. Corbyn will change the world for the better. He has the desire to change things in Britain. In March 2016, he said of Corbyn: 'He is a very honest-minded man. In 2016, Smith also endorsed Corbyn's re-election campaign at the Labour Party leadership election. In October 2015, Smith appeared on the BBC Three documentary We Want Our Country Back, where he sharply criticised the far-right anti-immigration political movement Britain First. In July 2015, Smith endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election. I want us to make our last stand at the ballot box'. 'I want to use my time and whatever influence I have from the book to get the young in Britain to vote the only way we can: to save our social democratic institutions. Smith said that it was the global financial crisis of 2008 that inspired him to take his 'last stand', writing and campaigning on income inequality, public services and what he saw as the diminishing prospects for young people. He also spoke on BBC Radio and at the Bristol Politics Festival.

He addressed the September 2014 Labour Party conference, speaking in support of the National Health Service (NHS) and describing how common preventable diseases 'snuffed out life like a cold breath on a warm candle flame' prior to the creation of the NHS. He attracted attention in November 2013, writing that he would not wear the remembrance poppy in future years because he felt the symbol was being used to promote support for present-day conflicts. Smith wrote regularly for The Guardian, commenting on politics and twentieth-century history. After his retirement he was a writer of memoirs and social history, dividing his time between Ontario and Yorkshire.

After their deaths, Smith consoled himself by turning to writing.

His wife Friede died in 1999, and his middle son Peter died in 2009. Smith made a career in the Oriental rug trade, as a buyer and salesman for Eaton's, specialising and importing new designs from the Middle East, the former Soviet bloc, and Afghanistan. He and Friede emigrated to Canada in November 1953, living in Scarborough (now part of Toronto) and later in Belleville, Ontario, and had three sons: Michael (born 1953), Peter (1959–2009), and John (born 1963).

The Empress of Australia by Harry Leslie Smith