Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #145866 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-25
• Binding: Paperback
• 816 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
John Major's rise to the post of British prime minister is a puzzle of modern politics that his lengthy autobiography fails to resolve. It is clear, as we follow him from his modest origins in south London to his work as a local councillor and his remarkable ascent at Westminster under the eye of Margaret Thatcher, that he was driven by a determination to prove himself. But now that we are growing used to the messianic zeal that Tony Blair brings to the role of prime minister, it seems extraordinary that John Major should have achieved the position with such little evident vision or relish. Here is the man we thought we knew, decent, hard-working; at the mercy of events rather than their master.

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 Exchequer. 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.

Customer Reviews

Pretty good, but John, how about fessing up your mistakes?
This serves as kind of a post-car crash autopsy on why the Tory Party failed to win in 1997 and has failed since. It's Europe. Conservatives often refer to Europe along the lines of "what was the point in winning WW2?". They don't accept that the electorate does not care about the EU. If the transport infrastructure is failing, education results deteriorating and the job market collapsing who apart from a hardcore could care less about subsidiarity? The irony is of course that the UK economy plus investment in NHS and education had never been higher than in the latter years of Major's administration but instead of trumpeting these "it's the economy stupid" facts the Tories undermined themselves with backbiting and infighting over something most of the UK neither understands nor cares about. Labour's 1983 manifesto may have been the longest suicide note in history but the period 1992-7 was the longest death by a thousand cuts. Major gives the details of this in a rather no holds barred manner but you get the sense that Major would have been happier being PM around the time of MacMillan and Eden before every MP had their own team of spin doctors hardwired to the editorial desk of the Daily Mail. One criticism is that Major does not mention the botched railway privatisation, something that has and will continue to cost the country more economically and socially than Black Wednesday, Gulf War I or the Poll Tax repeal conbined.

Cool dude
John Major was often ridiculed for his humble origins by left wing middle class journalists. He starts his autobiography by exploring the past of his family and the richness of his father's live, an account fascinating on its own. John Major as a person appears relatively late in the book but the reader quickly gets an impression of the ambitious young man driven by values, a sense of duty towards his family and the community. One begins to understand Major's own brand of liberal conservatism which is focused on the dignity of the individual. It is a sort of conservatism that was born from experiencing poverty and an ineffective welfare state. From his origins in local politics Major takes the reader into his carreer as an MP and thus paints a fascinating picture of post war Britain and some of the people who forged it. Major's style is very witty and analytical at the same time which makes the book a pleasure to read. The wealth of detail on macro-economic interdependencies make the book required reading for anyone who wants to understand politics. It emerges that Major was one of the most important Post-war Prime Ministers for two reasons: he launched the intiative for peace in Northern Ireland at a very great political if not personal risk thus breaking with taboos and he created a solid basis for local finance which lead to a ressurection of many British towns. Excellent reading!

Brilliant piece of writing
All my friends laughed at me when I bought this book. John Major may have been a figure of fun as a politician but as an author he is superb.

I have read several political biographies, including Wilson, Blair and Thatcher and this stands head-and-shoulders above the rest, thanks to its intimate style, humourous observations and insightfullness into both his own flaws and those of the political system.