Product Description

PREZZA: PULLING NO PUNCHES finally tells the remarkable journey of an 11-plus failure who became a union firebrand, a campaigning MP and Britain's longest-serving deputy prime minister.
    Whether you regard John Prescott as a street brawler, traitor to the left, grace-and-favour croquet player, philanderer and minister without a job; OR as the man who ensured crucial party modernisation, who helped get Labour back into power, who kept the peace between Brown and Blair, who fought with Al Gore to get the ground-breaking Kyoto Agreement signed and the voice of reason in the Cabinet - his life story makes for a compelling read.
   

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #170584 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-29
• Released on: 2008-05-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

About the Author

The son of a railway signalman, John Prescott failed his 11-plus exam and became a steward in the Merchant Navy. He went on to attend Ruskin College, Oxford and then Hull University where he obtained a degree in economics and economic history. He was elected to Parliament in 1970 as MP for Hull East. Following the death of John Smith in 1994 he became deputy leader of the Labour party in the first leadership election under the 'one member, one vote' system he had passionately advocated at the 1993 Labour conference.
    Following Labour's election victory in 1997, Prescott was appointed deputy prime minister, a position he held until his retirement from the job in June 2007.

Customer Reviews

Entertaining and easy to read
This is not a heavyweight book, it's not really comparable to memoirs by Thatcher or Campbell, but it is still an enjoyable and informative read.

Prescott is candid about deeply personal things like his struggles with bulimia and academia. He is less candid about the true nature of some of the people he has worked with. No one really gets a kicking, which is surprising for someone like Prescott who says in his book that one of his best qualities is his professional aggression. Bearing in mind the book's title, I would have liked to have seen him land a few more well placed blows on his opponents...

But Prescott has inarguably led a fascinating life and as such this is an inspiring success story of battling against the odds to achieve big things at the highest level of public service.

'Prezza' is not one for the political academics, but it would be a great book for those with an interest in the Labour Party and current affairs to chuck in the hand luggage for a bit of aeroplane reading.

Just what l'd hoped for
To start my rant, I'm not a Political Animal, and was hoping it
would not be full of policy decisions, more about his life.
I bought the book because l like John Prescott and think he's an
enigmatic person, and would love to meet him. I wasn't disappointed.
It's an amusing and entertaining read, he tell's of his life and how
he got to be where he was/is, as well as the egg incident.
Its not a heavy read. Sadly the New Statesman really pulled
it to pieces, which is one of the reasons l bought it.
If your not a John Prescott fan don't go anywhere near it.
But if you can forget Politics and read about the man,
l think you will enjoy it.
Personally I'm very happy I've read it, and it has put in
my mind what l thought about Mr Prescott to be correct,
he is a decent, honest, funny man.....and grumpy as he admits.

Prezza: My enormous chip on my shoulder
I always had a sneaking regard for Prescott, yes he came across sometimes as a bit of a maverick but it made for a refreshing contrast to other politicians.

Oh how one book can change your opinion of a man! To be blunt this is not just a poor political biography but a very poor book all round - a lightweight book about a supposedly heavyweight politician, which is more at home amongst the shallow so-called celebs' biographies than amongst serious political tomes.

This review really can be summarised by changing the book's title to `Prezza: My enormous chip on my shoulder', and you really don't need any further information as to what this book is about.

I'm honestly not exaggerating when I say that virtually every other page documents his struggles with academia and the feeling that the whole world is a conspiracy against him, usually because of those `nasty Tory toffs'. Soon into the book, even though there is an element of sympathy regarding his lack of academic abilities, you start to say `yes, yes we know, we get the point, now move on'.

Everyone, according to poor John, is trying to stitch him up; Sky News, the Labour Party, Unions and even the Queen. His encounter with the Queen provided one of the humorous highlights of the book and its inclusion had the opposite effect on me than Prescott probably intended. Instead of, like me, appreciating essentially a fellow master politician at work, with the subtly, astuteness and professionalism that the Queen displayed in a possibly awkward situation, Prescott's response was; "She'd deliberately... caught me out".

Perhaps some will see this review as unduly harsh (and if Prescott's reading it, part of the worldwide conspiracy against him) but I have certain expectations regarding political biographies.

Essentially, politicians are the cream of the top in terms of ability and intellect and I expect their work to reflect that to an electorate who votes and pays for them, so that we get an idea how the system works and how decisions, which affect every part of our lives, were made. For example books by Thatcher, Tony Benn, Healey, and Churchill are essential reading as political works. This is not one of them.

Major political issues such as the Referendum in 1975 are skimmed over and it's hard to see, despite Prescott holding the honourable office of Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, what he actually did apart from be a marriage counsellor to Blair and Brown. Even this is mainly whitewashed over. This subject has been covered in depth elsewhere especially by Andrew Rawnsley in his excellent Servants of the People, but Prescott's version (and he was at the centre of it) is reduced to one chapter with little analysis or much detail.

In all, a disappointing book which only took me half a day to read and probably not much more time to write.