- Hardcover: 575 pages
- Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd; First edition edition (5 Sep 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340739150
- ISBN-13: 978-0340739150
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.2 x 5.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
306,331 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #19 in Books > Biography > Political > Britain > Liberalism
- #41 in Books > Biography > Political > Britain > Conservatism
- #80 in Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Government & Politics > Countries & Regions > Central & South America
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Michael Heseltine will be forever associated with dramatically toppling Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party in November 1990. However, in Life in the Jungle, his eagerly awaited autobiography following departure from public office as Deputy Prime Minister in 1995, Heseltine has written an absorbing account of life in the thick of the Westminster jungle over the last quarter of a century. This is a long but never dull book that covers Heseltine's adolescent struggle with dyslexia, presidency of the Oxford Union, his forays into the property world, the formation of his successful publishing group Haymarket, and early days as a junior minister in Edward Heath's administration. What is particularly engaging about the book is the sheer energy and scope of Heseltine's political initiatives, including selling Concorde, his courageous anti-racist positions in the aftermath of Enoch Powell's "rivers of blood" speech, urban regeneration in the inner cities, and selling off council houses. His entrepreneurial instincts consistently vindicate his belief that if his Conservative colleagues in the 1980s "had known more about the world as it is and not how theory says it ought to be, they might have been able to make more temperate and rational contributions to the great economic debate of the 1980s".
The Thatcher years, and Heseltine's own sensational resignation over the Westland affair in 1986, are dignified but a little colourless. Thatcher's behaviour over Westland is viewed as "an affront to the standards of government in which I profoundly believed". The challenge to Thatcher in 1990 vividly recaptures the tense manoeuvrings for power that brought Heseltine within a whisker of the top job, whilst his account of the Major years offers engrossing but generous accounts of his by then junior colleagues, and his final startling dalliance with a challenge for the leadership following the resignation of John Major. Life in the Jungle is a fascinating portrait of one of the most charismatic and principled Conservative politicians of recent decades, and is required reading for anyone interested in British politics in the latter half of the 20th century. --Jerry Brotton
Product Description
Michael Heseltine has enjoyed one of the most colourful and creative careers of modern British politics. This autobiography tells the story not only of his political life, but also of his business career.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is a disappointment, and in my humble submission, it has the wrong title - can I suggest "Why I was Right All Along"?
The author has a habit of glossing over major events - for example, the fall of Mrs Thatcher - an event that was pretty huge in anyone's book - occupies considerably less space than Mr H's National Service. Compare this with John Major's rather more (and I don't really mean this, but I can't think of a better word) HONEST account of his political life, and you start to see that you have bought into an ego trip.
You'd have to be a real Heseltine fan to enjoy this, I'm afraid....
Format:Paperback
Michael Heseltine has written and excellent description of what it is to be a practical politician i.e. someone who has previous business experience and the entrepreneurial skills to see opportunities for new initiatives. Too many of our politicians have little or no experience of this sort but, having built a very successful family business, Michael Heseltine made a major contribution to improving efficiency in government and in pushing through a very large number of programmes for urban renewal.
Yes, his biography can obviously be accused of being self serving but, for me, it has the ring of truth because his achievements are a matter of public record. I found this book a fascinating story of how talent and ambition can be used for the public good.
He is generous in giving credit where it is due to colleagues and even to political opponents and describes the role of the anti-European Tory right wing in destroying the credibility of the John Major government.
Well written and thoroughly recommended.
Yes, his biography can obviously be accused of being self serving but, for me, it has the ring of truth because his achievements are a matter of public record. I found this book a fascinating story of how talent and ambition can be used for the public good.
He is generous in giving credit where it is due to colleagues and even to political opponents and describes the role of the anti-European Tory right wing in destroying the credibility of the John Major government.
Well written and thoroughly recommended.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book tells you nothing about Heseltine you didn't know already. It is fundamentally flawed in that it reveals little of his character and glosses over key events in his career. There is nothing new at all in his account of the Westland affair or of his part in Thatcher's overthrow. All in all, extremely disappointing
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Self-publicist, as ever
Heseltine is just another failed pro-capitalist politician: the Labour Party is now full of this type - arrogant, rich, telling us what to think and what to do. Read more
Published on 1 Sep 2004 by William Podmore
Unshrink Yourself Tarzan!!
Life in the Jungle?!? Nope. Heseltine lived his life in a 20th Century, first world, economic super power and democracy..
The fact that he thinks of it as a Jungle is worrying. Read more
Published on 18 Jun 2002
A factual, informative and enjoyable book
Having just read this book, I can say that it is one of the most descriptive of autobiographies that I have ever read. Read more
Published on 28 Nov 2000
An amazing insight into the life of a senior Conservative.
This was an incredibly well written and well flowing account of not merely Michael's time in Government but also his life before politics. Read more
Published on 25 Sep 2000
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