Product Description

John Cole has had a ringside seat on the British public life for the past 40 years.During that time he kept notes of his conversations with politicians,but he is now free of the constraints that the need for both brevity and balance imposedwhen he was BBc Political Editor.He is now free to tell tales from inside the Cabinet Room.His cast includes every PrimeMinister since Harold Wilson,every leader of the opposition and many others besides.He also dips further into memory to record a youthful encounter with Clement Attlee,the last British Prime Minister to cross the Irish border withoput a police guard.AS IT SEEMED TO ME is full of revealing stories about our politicians from the best known political commentator of recent times.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #559150 in Books
• Published on: 1996-03-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Review
John Cole was the wittiest and most acerbic of political correspondents during his days at the Guardian and then the BBC, and now that he has retired and published his political memoirs, he proves to have been one of the best informed. Among other things, his book reveals just how ready politicians are to dish the dirt on their colleagues in quiet conversations behind the scenes at Westminster. Cole is a professional writer, so it is not surprising that his book is a great deal more readable than the political memoirs of Thatcher, Lawson, et al. He writes candidly, his judgements are by no means always the expected ones, and his explanations of political events during the past 40 years or so are full of important background information. His narration of the fall of Mrs Thatcher has the air of a lesser Jacobean tragedy. Brilliant. (Kirkus UK)

About the Author
John Cole was Political Editor of the BBC. Previously a newspaper journalist, he served on the Guardian and rose to be deputy editor of The Observer. He is married with four sons.

Customer Reviews

Tiring
I bought this looking for an insight into recent British political history and to some extent this does give that. On the other hand the prose is so astonishingly turgid that it almost takes days to read a chapter.. I like to think of myself as well-read and I enjoy "proper" literature but this book is like wading through treacle. I have found myself reading and re-reading a sentence several times only to realise that there really is a word missing and I'm not going mad - it actually doesn't make any sense. His anecdotes are also often rather dull; I find myself waiting for the punchline and then realising I've missed it.
I persevered and I read through it and I do feel more knowledgable now than when I started out; I'm not sure it's worth it though. I wouldn't recommend this.

Stale, dry, boring
I completely agree with Felicity.

I can't understand anyone who enjoyed this book.

John Cole is a man who worked as the political correspondent of the BBC for 11 years. Before that he worked as a journalist for the [Manchester] Guardian as the 'industry correspondent' and has been an observer of the big political figures since the 1950s.

For this reason, I bought this book. I thought it be full of anecdotes about his meetings with Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher and Arthur Scargill. I thought it would even develop an international theme and talk about Thatcher's neo-conservative shift in international affairs with Ronald Reagan, and be full of anecdotes and a perspective in that sphere. I thought that having worked as a self styled 'impartial' figure in the field of journalism, his retirement would allow him to tell every sordid detail about these often PR-glamourised figures, and give us his own political opinion laced with the detail of personal conversations, and supported by anecdotes that only someone of his position could be able to formulate. Cole also mentions in the introduction that he was unable to give his own opinions during Thatcher's term, which made him frustrated, so I was expecting an explosive opinion supported by facts and integrity, as you would expect from a journalist of this calibre.

Perhaps I went into this book expecting too much of John Cole. Perhaps I asked more of his integrity, his private and professional affairs than he was prepared to divulge. On the other hand, as I suspect, he might simply be a boring character, and a book of this nature ought to bring an exciting new dimension of these famous historical characters to the fore.

Returning to a description of this book, I agree wholeheartedly with Felicity. The book is turgid reading - it's not exactly hard to read or difficult, it's just boring. It's like wading through treacle. As she mentions, he divulges a personal anecdote in which you're expecting an explosive punchline, only to realise he's moved on and there's nothing interesting about it. Cole moves between anecdotes sporadically as well. He will be telling a story about Harold Wilson during the 1950s, then he moves to something else he was doing with the Manchester Guardian before returning to outline the picture with Wilson and his tussle for the leadership of the Labour Party. It is told entirely chronologically, but for me makes boring reading - jumping between subjects without holding the concentration or interest of the reader.

Returning to my expectations of an explosive new account of Thatcher's politics, his perspective is that Thatcher's 'conviction politics' was bad for British politics. That short, simple statement sums up this book for me. He was BBC political correspondent for the important years of Thatcher's tenure, and was a key journalistic figure before and after this radical politician, of whom continues to divide peoples' opinions to this day. He could write a brilliant political/journalistic account of several Prime Ministers and their cabinets from his front row seat of British politics. He could praise or criticise Thatcher using information, anecdotes and sources readers don't have a luxury of. He either doesn't have the bottle, isn't of the character to have a strong feeling of these affairs or has too much integrity to divulge interesting information about the characters he has followed for decades.

Either way, in my opinion, it makes for a boring book. It is a light skirmish over the important figures and events of British political history, without offering any substantative analysis or opinion. It is laced with anecdotes which fail to impress, where you expect a journalist of his calibre could fill the pages with explosive stories regarding a range of familiar political and fellow media characters. This book should be called 'An summary of my career in Journalism' by John Cole, as that is the vain it is written in - where those events are retold with 'journalistic integrity' and a refrain from divulging any interesting new perspective...which you expect a major retiring journalist might seek to do.

I rate this book 2/5. It is as if John Cole is stuck in the mindset that his role is that of a journalist - primarily as an agent in telling the news and displaying the facts. I was expecting that his retirement might see an identity shift to him offering a commentary on historical events, possibly alongside his own political opinion, from his own time at the forefront if these events. His knowledge of top politicians, journalists and editors etc. could have provided for a great book in this respect. However, it is basically a summary of political news and events from 1950s - 1990s with no interesting new information, nor a groundbreaking political account from someone involved with the major political figures of the decades. If this is what you expect from a retiring journalist after decades of being at the forefront of British political events, then you will enjoy this book. Unfortunately I expected more, and this book was like 'wading through treacle' for me.

Superb!
One of my all time favourite reads - the lettering on the front cover of my copy has been worn away, it's been re-read so many times.
Full of fascinating insights into the characters & events in British politics & journalism over decades.
Buy it - you really won't regret it.