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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
It has, for no especially good reason, been the convention that Government Whips not publish their memoirs, let alone their diaries. Gyles Brandreth's account of his five years in Parliament, and of his time as a Whip in the dying days of the Major Government, enjoyably trash that convention to give a memorable and entertaining account of days of drift and uncertainty. Brandreth has a good ear, and a sense of his own absurdity; he was placed to see disorganisation and disloyalty from close at hand, and is touching in his admiration for Major himself, whom he sees as a nice and able man with an impossible task. There are some entertaining stories, some of them new, and vitriol poured impartially on the press, Labour politicians and Tory disloyalists--and moments of charm in his tributes to his wife and dead friends like Simon Cadell and Stephen Milligan. The book also provides answers to the difficult questions of what private secretaries and Whips actually do--in Brandreth's case, the answer seems to be endless damage control in a doomed situation. There is an odd telling moment when he finds Peter Mandelson asleep in the Commons library with a Filofax on the table beside him--and virtuously abstains from peeking. --Roz Kaveney
Product Description
Like Alan Clark's Diaries, Brandreth's are not offering a formal account of Government in the 1990s - far from it. These diaries start in 1990 when Brandreth, after a multifarious career in theatre, television and publishing, decided that he wanted to become a Tory MP. The diaries open with his application to get on the Candidates' List, finding a seat (Chester), the 1992 General Election, and his arrival at Westminster as a 'new boy'. All good diaries need set pieces, and Brandreth provides several, in particular working as a Tory Whip when the Tory majority was steadily in decline and every vote counted. No one has ever told the inside story of the Whips' Office because there has been an unwritten rule that what goes on inside remains confidential forever after, but Bradnreth's diaries will break with tradition. There is an all-star cast (Princess Diana to Bill Clinton, Joanna Lumley to John Profumo), plenty of gossip and some intriguing scenes such as sharing dinner with Richard Nixon and Jonathan Aitken, being set up with a prostitute by the News of the World, and falling backwards into the Prime Minister's secret loo in the middle of midnight talks on the future of Northern Ireland. The political cast inevitably includes Jeffrey Archer, Norman Lamont and Neil Hamilton among others. As the publishers of Chips Channon, Nicholas Henderson and Alan Clark it is vital that any political diaries we publish should stand comparison. Brandreth may be a lighter-weight politician but his diaries genuinely reflect life in the last Tory Government of this century. They are also great fun.
See all Product Description
It has, for no especially good reason, been the convention that Government Whips not publish their memoirs, let alone their diaries. Gyles Brandreth's account of his five years in Parliament, and of his time as a Whip in the dying days of the Major Government, enjoyably trash that convention to give a memorable and entertaining account of days of drift and uncertainty. Brandreth has a good ear, and a sense of his own absurdity; he was placed to see disorganisation and disloyalty from close at hand, and is touching in his admiration for Major himself, whom he sees as a nice and able man with an impossible task. There are some entertaining stories, some of them new, and vitriol poured impartially on the press, Labour politicians and Tory disloyalists--and moments of charm in his tributes to his wife and dead friends like Simon Cadell and Stephen Milligan. The book also provides answers to the difficult questions of what private secretaries and Whips actually do--in Brandreth's case, the answer seems to be endless damage control in a doomed situation. There is an odd telling moment when he finds Peter Mandelson asleep in the Commons library with a Filofax on the table beside him--and virtuously abstains from peeking. --Roz Kaveney
Product Description
Like Alan Clark's Diaries, Brandreth's are not offering a formal account of Government in the 1990s - far from it. These diaries start in 1990 when Brandreth, after a multifarious career in theatre, television and publishing, decided that he wanted to become a Tory MP. The diaries open with his application to get on the Candidates' List, finding a seat (Chester), the 1992 General Election, and his arrival at Westminster as a 'new boy'. All good diaries need set pieces, and Brandreth provides several, in particular working as a Tory Whip when the Tory majority was steadily in decline and every vote counted. No one has ever told the inside story of the Whips' Office because there has been an unwritten rule that what goes on inside remains confidential forever after, but Bradnreth's diaries will break with tradition. There is an all-star cast (Princess Diana to Bill Clinton, Joanna Lumley to John Profumo), plenty of gossip and some intriguing scenes such as sharing dinner with Richard Nixon and Jonathan Aitken, being set up with a prostitute by the News of the World, and falling backwards into the Prime Minister's secret loo in the middle of midnight talks on the future of Northern Ireland. The political cast inevitably includes Jeffrey Archer, Norman Lamont and Neil Hamilton among others. As the publishers of Chips Channon, Nicholas Henderson and Alan Clark it is vital that any political diaries we publish should stand comparison. Brandreth may be a lighter-weight politician but his diaries genuinely reflect life in the last Tory Government of this century. They are also great fun.
See all Product Description
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
I spoke, not very well, at the London Playing Fields Society Centenary Dinner at the Savoy. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
I spoke, not very well, at the London Playing Fields Society Centenary Dinner at the Savoy. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover