Drama, savagery... and intimate confessions: Our vote for the best political blockbusters of the year that make rollicking Christmas reads
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By Boris Johnson (William Collins £30, 784pp). Post-Margaret Thatcher, no politician has so utterly and irredeemably divided opinion as Boris Johnson has. Love him or loathe him, two things about the man are undeniable. First, that he never does anything by halves – hence this memoir runs to nearly 800 pages and is longer than James Joyce's Ulysses. Second, that he is a fine writer, with a command of the English language that makes him a pleasure to read.
![[The tale of Liz Truss's devastating mini-Budget - that saw her tenure as PM last only 49 days - is discussed in her book Ten Years To Save The West]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/12/15/93084307-14186227-image-a-19_1734017366370.jpg)
It's full of anecdote and analysis, intimate moments, revelation and confession. He tells it as he sees it – 'Keir Starmer would do his puzzled/irritable face, like a bullock having a thermometer unexpectedly shoved up its rectum' – and you can't help but snigger.
![[Author Tom Baldwin is a respected journalist and a self-confessed Labour sympathiser who was given exceptional access to Keir Starmer's background]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/12/15/93084305-14186227-image-a-20_1734017372484.jpg)
He denies charges of breaching lockdown rules – 'I saw no cake. I ate no blooming cake. If this was a party, it was the feeblest in the history of human festivity' – but admits a mistake in not stamping down on the gossip. He is painfully honest about how close he came to death – 'lying in Intensive Care, banjaxed with Covid, I didn't want to sleep – in case I never woke up'. He is scathing about those in his party who, in the end, did in with him – 'Surely, I told myself, Tory MPs wouldn't be so dumb as to get rid of me? Surely not . . .'.
![[Michael Ashcroft commends the latest Tory leader as fearless with 'an electric quality and an energy that most front-rank figures in Westminster do not possess']](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/12/15/93084793-14186227-image-a-12_1734017275804.jpg)
This may not be political memoir in the sombre manner of grandiose predecessors like Harold Macmillan and Mrs T, but it is essential reading for understanding the drama of the past five years. And it's a lot of fun. Love or loathe Boris Johnson, there is no denying that a politician has so utterly and irredeemably divided opinion as much as the former prime minister since Margaret Thatcher.
![[This Vernon Bogdanor title is stimulating and controversial, identifying six politicians who, while they never made it to Downing Street, profoundly changed modern Britain]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/12/15/93084789-14186227-image-m-14_1734017286266.jpg)
