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The Blair Years

Name: The Blair Years
Price: 14.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Alastair Campbell
ISBN: 9780307574404

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Published on Jul 20, 2011 | 816 Pages

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Published on Jul 20, 2011 | 816 Pages

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A revelatory account of Tony Blair’s tumultuous leadership, The Blair Years gathers extracts from the diaries of the man who knew him best: Alastair Campbell—Blair’s spokesman from 1994 to 2003, his press secretary, strategist, and closest confidant. It is a compelling chronicle of contemporary British politics and the rise of New Labour, providing the first important record of a remarkable decade in Britain’s history.

Here are the defining events of the time, from the Labour Party’s new dawn to the war on terror; from the death of Princess Diana to negotiations for peace in Northern Ireland; from Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq to the Hutton Inquiry of 2003, the year Campbell resigned his position. Here also are Blair’s relationships with world leaders and heads of state, including presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. But above all, here is Tony Blair up close and personal, making the decisions that affected the lives of millions, under relentless and frequently hostile pressure.

Often described as the second most powerful figure in Britain, Alastair Campbell is no stranger to controversy. Feared and admired in equal measure, hated by some, he was pivotal to the founding of New Labour and the sensational election victory of 1997. Campbell spent more waking hours alongside the prime minister than anyone, and his diaries—at times brutally frank, often funny, always engrossing—take the reader right to the heart of government.
The Blair Years is a story of politics in the raw, of progress and setback, of reputations made and destroyed, under the relentless scrutiny of a 24-hour media. Unflinchingly told, it covers the crises and scandals, the rows and resignations, the ups and downs at No. 10 Downing Street. But amid the landmark events are insights and observations that make this a remarkably human portrayal of some of the most influential people in the world.

A completely riveting book about life at the very top, told by a man who saw it all.

“Alastair Campbell’s diaries provide a fascinating front row seat to the daily drama of the Blair premiership. American readers will be intrigued by Blair’s relations with the Clintons, with Bush post 9/11, with Condi, Cheney, Powell, Princess Diana and the Queen.”
—Tina Brown, author of The Diana Chronicles

“Beyond question the most important and revelatory book so far written about the inner workings of Blair’s government . . . By turns arrogant, brilliant, combative, demotic and emotional, Campbell delivers his impressions and verdicts in a wholly committed, staccato style. It is an earthy account of life in the Blair government’s 24/7 media-centric world.”
–The Washington Post Book World

“The Blair Years is a classic text of the you-are-there school of politics at work. Surely a valuable source for scholars to scour for many years to come, it is available here and now as one of the most compelling reads of history in the raw . . . The diaries provide a behind-the-scenes look at dramatic junctures in recent history.”
–Los Angeles Times

Reviews from Britain:

“This is a brilliant, absorbing account . . . Vivid, direct, immediate, and honest in its way, the diary draws you into a world for which ‘evil’ is hardly too strong a word . . . Rich in detail, powerful in mood, honest within its own lights, it is the more intriguing for the dark and often unspoken presence, at its core, of a mystery: the Master, Blair . . . These diaries will be gasped at, and relied upon, for decades to come. Buy them: they will suck you in.”
–The Times

“This is a riveting, compelling and genuinely revelatory book . . . The Campbell that comes across in these diaries is certainly a complex and interesting character: . . . engagingly frank, with a winning line in black humour, a certain blokeish faux-naivety when faced with an array of international statesmen and an unrivalled understanding of how the tabloid press works.”
–The Sunday Times

“There are fascinating details and revelatory nuggets . . . Campbell brings back to vivid and gripping life the night that Diana died [and] when Nato was losing public opinion over Kosovo.”
–The Observer

“Electric . . . Campbell is a first-rate diarist [with] a very acute eye for the telling detail . . . He has a novelist’s ability to reveal character through a close study of behaviour and–rare in a political diarist–an artist’s understanding that it is the smallest things which reveal the most . . . The portrait of Tony Blair is by turns endearing and unnervingly frightening . . . This is a perfect piece of diary-writing: eagle-eyed, gossipy, funny.”
–Mail on Sunday

Author

Alastair Campbell

Alastair Campbell was born in Keighley, Yorkshire, in 1957. A graduate of Cambridge University, his first career was in journalism. He was asked by Tony Blair to be his press secretary when Blair became leader of the Labour Party. He worked for Blair—first in that capacity, then as official spokesman and director of communications and strategy—from 1994 to 2003. Since his resignation, he has been engaged mainly in writing, public speaking and working for Leukaemia Research, where he is chairman of fund-raising. He has continued to act as an adviser to Blair and the Labour Party, including during the 2005 election campaign. Campbell lives in London.Alastair Campbell is represented by the Knopf Speakers Bureau (http://www.knopfspeakersbureau.com).

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The Blair Years

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