Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating character study of a flawed woman who's led an interesting life, 6 Jun 2008
Let me start by saying: if you don't like Cherie Blair, this is not the book that will change your mind. I started reading it with an open mind, but by the end even I was getting tired of her! Having said that, I enjoyed reading "Speaking for Myself" and I recommend it (which may sound strange, but only if you think you need to like the subject of a biography to enjoy reading it).
One of the things that has always intrigued me about Mrs Blair is that she is such a contrast: a high achiever with a great deal of intelligence and yet so devoid of emotional intelligence that she is oblivious to the way that she comes across. It's clear from reading this book that she is a warm and caring person, intensely loyal to her family and friends, who does a lot for charity. It's also clear that she has poor personal judgement and no idea how to read situations.
Cherie grew up in working class Liverpool. Her father was largely absent from her life (she only found out that she had a new step-sister when she saw the birth notice in the newspaper). She was raised by her grandmother and mother and developed a strong sense of feminism from an early age. What's interesting is that she then chose to go into law - one of the most conservative occupations that she could have chosen - and to marry a man whose political ambitions meant that she was condemning herself to playing a support role. She makes a throwaway comment at one stage about how simple her life could have been had she chosen to marry someone else, but the fact is that she made her choices knowingly and yet proceeds to complain about the consequences at great length. It's hard to muster the sympathy that she clearly feels she deserves.
Cherie also has a preoccupation with financial security, which is not attractive but nevertheless understandable given her working class background. What she doesn't seem to get however is how inappropriate it is for a woman in her privileged position to complain about being hard up. Instead it's as if she thinks that if she just explains one more time about how Tony went from earning £80,000 per annum to £20,000 per annum when he became an MP, then we'd suddenly get it and feel sorry for her.
In the early days of Tony's political career, he and Cherie had a strong partnership. The dynamic between them changed when he became PM. Cherie had to accept that she didn't get to know what was going on and that Alastair Campbell would make decisions about what she could and couldn't do. She felt quite isolated in Downing Street (at one point she refers to herself as "the prisoner") and probably as a consequence she developed very close relationships with Andre her hairdresser and with Carole Caplin. Nevertheless when things all fall apart with Carole, she comments that she didn't have the emotional energy to deal with Carole's misery. This section of the book is Cherie at her worst. She had gone through a miscarriage, felt financially insecure and was generally feeling sorry for herself. She is so pre-occupied with her own woes that she doesn't give much thought to the looming conflict in Iraq and she also never admits that she made errors of judgement (the inability to acknowledge her mistakes is a recurring flaw in her character).
The best parts of the book are when Cherie is talking about the places she's been and people that she's met. Her descriptions of official visits to China, Pakistan and Rwanda are fascinating, as are her observations about world players like the Clintons, President Bush, Vladimir Putin, the Royal Family and the very theatrical Silvio Berlosconi. (Putin's wife tells her that Putin has a rule that you must never praise a woman as that will only spoil her). She had a unique front row to history and she's very open about what she thinks. The book is also very amusing at times - I laughed out loud when she described sitting her driving test. She comes across as being very honest throughout, even when it's to her detriment (and it often is).
The book is over 400 pages long and it could easily have been shorter. (There's too much about her early boyfriends for example.) It's not badly written, but a better editor would also have encouraged a greater degree of self-scrutiny. She's an interesting and complex woman but this is not the book it could have been. Nonetheless, despite these criticisms, I enjoyed it very much.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Does everybody have an opinion about this woma.n?, 24 Jun 2008
Reading the other reviews written about this book will show you that Cherie Blair is a woman about whom everybody has an opinion, and a strong one, at that.
This book is not a political biography, nor an analysis of the first ten years of the New Labour Government. It is a partial biography written by a woman who has some claim to recognition in her own right, but whose major claim to fame is that she is married to Tony Blair. Interestingly, although she uses Cherie Booth as her professional name, and most of her other books have been written under that name, this book was by Cherie Blair.
Cherie Blair is obviously an intelligent woman, graduating top of her year in law, and forging a career at the bar (in what is still a male-dominated profession) whilst looking after a home and family. What's more, she made it against all odds, coming from what was virtually a one-parent family at a time when such families did not receive the support that they now enjoy. Perhaps that goes some way towards explaining her extraordinary blend of shrewdness and naivete.
Surely she must have realised that, on the day after her husband became Prime Minister, there would be cameras trained on her front door - and that any embarrassing photographs would be recycled endlessly? How could she have been taken in by the likes of Carole Caplin? Didn't she have any friends of her own who could have pointed out the obvious truth that hangers-on who were attracted to her because of her position were in it for their benefit, and not hers? Even on leaving Number 10, didn't she realise that her throwaway line to the press about not missing them, even if intended as a joke, would be the thing that most people remembered about her husband's exit from the highest office in the land?
Another strand that runs through this book is Cherie Blair's worry about financial security. That's only natural, given her background, but she is a successful barrister, whose earnings (and earning potential) far outstrip those of most people. She is also married to a man who will not have to rely on his (not insubstantial) Prime Minister's pension, but who has the ability to earn a fortune in the future. Her apparent obsession with money does seem to sit rather uncomfortably on the shoulders of a self-professed left winger.
What this book does emphasise is the difficulty of being a successful woman as well as the wife of the Prime Minister. Most Number 10 wives have kept in the background, but that is not Cherie Blair's way. She seems to believe that the place for the head is firmly above the parapet, and she does seem to have attracted blame for things that were not of her making. As far as I know, nobody blamed Mrs Eden for the Suez crisis, or Mrs Chamberlain for the Munich debacle, so why is Cherie held partly responsible for the fact that her husband ordered the troops into Iraq?
We will all have to wait for Tony Blair's autobiography for an explanation of the political thinking that has shaped the past decade, but this book might give you an idea of what it's like to be in the grey area behind the throne.
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6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ignore the vitriol - this is a really good read, 17 Jul 2008
If you've already decided you hate Cherie Blair (as some previous reviwers clearly have - one star? Come on - that's just nasty) then there will be little point in you reading this. Your views will not be changed. Fortunately, lots of people don't have their opinions formed by the tabloids, nor their barometer for perfection set so high that human failings are not permitted in anyone with the temerity to be in the public eye. To you, I would say, go and buy it. I came to it with little in the way of opinions other than that Cherie Blair must have done something terrible in a past life to have had so much opprobrium heaped on her over the years, plus I was interested in hearing her speak for herself. It helps, obviously, that I am close to her age, have seen my children grow up in the same sort of period, and lived though the momentous political events that form the backdrop to much of this book. And I loved it. Indeed, I found it extremely difficult to put down. It's intelligently written, well constructed and thoughtful, with enough intimate detail to enlighten and entertain, but no mud slinging or sentimentality. Whatever others might suggest, she doesn't launch missiles at her 'enemies', simply tells it how it was from her point of view, with great dignity. Neither does she twitter on about Tony particularly. She loves her husband, clearly. She is loyal to him. Enough said.
I found the insights into life at Downing Street - and within government generally - fascinating (I was shocked to hear there is NO BUDGET for the premier's wife to dress appropriately, for example, though plenty of interference in what is deemed politically correct), but mostly I was just drawn to it because here's a very ordinary - albeit very bright - girl who achieved great things professionally, just happened to fall in love with a Prime Minister to be, and juggled home life and career like so many of us do. Only more so, of course. It possibly doesn't merit five stars (precious few books do) but I made my four five for the simple reason that a verdict of one star is not a review of the quality of the book on sale here, but would seem to be directed at its author, which feels unfair.
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