Product Description

The candid, irreverent, intimate and hilarious diaries of a Tory MP in the last Conservative government.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #230930 in Books
• Published on: 1999-05-10
• Binding: Hardcover
• 542 pages

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

Synopsis
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.

About the Author
Gyles Brandreth is a former Oxford Scholar and President of the Oxford Union and worked in theatre, television and publishing before becoming MP for the City of Chester in 1992. He held a number of junior ministerial appointments before becoming a Government Whip. In the run-up to the 1997 General Election he was Lord Commissionar of the Treasury with special responsibility for the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Kenneth Clarke), the Cabinet Office, and the Deputy Minister (Michael Heseltine). He is married with two children.

Customer Reviews

Perceptive and hilarious
Gyles Brandreth is a terrific diarist and a vastly underrated writer - this is funny, perceptive, shrewd, wonderfully indiscreet, massively readable, and should be required reading for politicians, to counterbalance the weighty policy tomes which all too-often seem to shape their deathless prose.

Great Fun
This is a superb book. It makes politics human. It shows how politicians can have wonderful talents but at the same time terrible flaws. Brandreth describes how high-minded idealism is just pointless - it's an absurd world. He has to do a number of completely silly things to get on, he loves the show, but he's appalled by it at the same time.

Anyone who wants to go into politics should read this book. It gives a great insight into the pressures and problems. Who would do it if they knew just how bad the hours, the constituents and one's colleagues can be. The stories about the drop outs are so sad.

I liked the insights into G.B.s private life - his grief at the death of his friend Simon Cadell, his love of his wife and his friendship with Prince Phillip.

Also, I'm a speechwriter and I found the book a treasure chest of one-liners and witty anecdotes.

Gloss but not much else
'Breaking the Code' follows Giles Brandrith's period as an MP in what proved to be the last 4 years of Major's government. Do not expect conviction politics or complex social comment. This is the autobiographical equivalent of the back of a cereal packet but none the less brings a rather unique insight into the death throws of a government. The sections covering Brandrith's time in the whips office as discipline becomes frayed is fascinating although you get the feeling that Brandrith was ignorant at the time of the importance of events which surrounded him.