John Major The Autobiography (Hardcover)

So we find him bowed down by the misfortunes of an ungrateful world, rendered defensive by problems with the economy, by arguments over Europe, by the intractability of politicians in Northern Ireland, by attacks from within his own party.

With that same party busy airbrushing him from its history--despite his unlikely victory over Neil Kinnock in 1992--it's as well he has got his account into print, an unstuffy telling of a fascinating story that is free of the pomposity that affects so many of his political peers and which reveals a deep-seated belief in the value of basic decency. "I will not concede possession of the recent past to the mythographers of left or right who have every self-interest in retouching the history we made," he says.

But how sad to find him still so defensive and so bitter about the slights of others, still anxious to explain why speeches or gestures were misconstrued. "I was too conservative, too conventional. Too safe, too often. Too defensive. Too reactive," he says. But could he have been anything else? --Kim Fletcher

Synopsis
Major's early life was extraordinary; his rise through Parliament meteoric. Soon a favourite of Margaret Thatcher, he became Foreign Secretary and then Chancellor of the Exchequher. When Thatcher fell, he fought and won a shrewd campaign to succeed her. With the difficulties of the Gulf and Maastricht behind him, and the Poll Tax abolished, John Major went on to win a remarkable victory in the General Election of 1992, against the expectations of even his own friends. He brought down inflation and ushered in a solid economic recovery. He made some of the most decisive steps for a generation towards peace in Northern Ireland. Yet within months of the 1992 election, his government was in troubled waters. In this autobiography of his life and career, John Major is honest about what he won and what he lost, and about friends and foes within his own party as well as outside.