- Hardcover: 388 pages
- Publisher: Short Books Ltd; First Edition edition (20 Jan 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1904095674
- ISBN-13: 978-1904095675
- Product Dimensions: 22.8 x 15.4 x 4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
491,247 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #83 in Books > Biography > Political > Britain > Labour & Socialism
- #85 in Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Government & Politics > Countries & Regions > UK > Political Parties > Labour Party
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More About the Author
Product Description
Roy Hattersley, the Observer, January 23, 2005
Peston has written a book which everyone interested in serious politics - the politics of ideas - should read.
Guardian, January 10, 2005
Brown’s Britain by Robert Peston may be taken as an authoritative explanation of Brown’s quarrel with the prime minister.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a rambling, badly organized and poorly written book.
Peston needs a good editor. The editor's first task should be to remove the brackets keys from Peston's typewriter. Then she should remove the dash key. This might help to remove the author's constant temptation to insert long, irrelevant parenthetical remarks that do little more than distract the reader.
Then she should carve up the countless long, rambling sentences and throw out all the quotations that simply repeat what Peston himself has already said.
Better still, she should include a note at the beginning of the book saying, unless you are a masochist, don't bother with this awful tome; read Anthony Seldon's "Blair Unbound" instead.
Peston needs a good editor. The editor's first task should be to remove the brackets keys from Peston's typewriter. Then she should remove the dash key. This might help to remove the author's constant temptation to insert long, irrelevant parenthetical remarks that do little more than distract the reader.
Then she should carve up the countless long, rambling sentences and throw out all the quotations that simply repeat what Peston himself has already said.
Better still, she should include a note at the beginning of the book saying, unless you are a masochist, don't bother with this awful tome; read Anthony Seldon's "Blair Unbound" instead.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book was a real eye opener. Being a strong conservative i wanted to read what was going on with the hype over Brown and Blair. The entire book tells the reader what all pro tories and many doubting labourites know that Blair and Brown really shouldn't be best pals.
Good read for many keen politicans. This should be renamed the handbook for backstabbers !!
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Gordon Brown is portrayed here with some degree of admiration, both for what he has achieved as Chancellor since 1997 and for his undoubted and strongly-held ideological underpinnings (one of the many similarities with Thatcher that Peston brings to our attention). This is well-written, highly journalistic book, packed full of detail, anecdote and who allegedly said what to whom, why and when in the corridors of power in Westminster. However, it's not all about recurring personality clashes and murky insider machinations. There are cogent evaluations of Brown's role in Labour Party politics pre-1997, his expansive role in social and economic policy-making as Chancellor, and good summaries of the effectiveness of his flagship policies, plus much that is useful on the changing internal machinery of the Treasury. The fraught and sometimes embittered relations between the Treasury and No. 10 are a recurrent and enjoyable theme here. Peston effectively conveys the importance of certain members of Brown's political clique, espcially Ed Balls, with latter coming across - again, with no little admiration - as the animating genius of much that Brown and the Labour government have done on macro-economic policy since assuming office. The most insightful and interesting pages are reserved for Labour's internal politics surrounding the UK's potential entry to the Euro, which is covered in two excellent chapters; much light is shed on the differences and divisions between Brown and Blair on this issue.
Overall, then, an often fascinating book, both informative and enjoyable - the author has much to say about both the man (Brown) and the machine (the Treasury) that he has dominated for nearly a decade.
Overall, then, an often fascinating book, both informative and enjoyable - the author has much to say about both the man (Brown) and the machine (the Treasury) that he has dominated for nearly a decade.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
a hagiography
I read somewhere that peston's biography had been dictated by one of gordon brown's aides. True or not this book is much more a hagiography than a balanced assessment of brown's... Read more
Published on 28 Mar 2005 by john ainsworth
incisive and important
This book transcends all the recent media hype. It is actually a very serious analysis of New Labour, which looks beneath all the spin and gloss and asks what has actually been... Read more
Published on 19 Jan 2005
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