Boris Johnson: The Gambler

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I found the book most interesting in its coverage of the current government’s handling of Brexit and the Covid pandemic - as such it was less of a history book than a commentary on the functioning of contemporary U. This is a compulsory read for all who wish for better in our country, so that we may forgive and support our prime minister rather than berate him, for we must put aside differences as much we can so as to improve all our lives. Johnson Snr is faithless and a creep: in the parched summer of 1976, he told the family’s two au pairs that the water shortage made washing clothes impossible and therefore they would have to follow the lead set by him and his wife and walk around naked, which they duly did.

One thing I can say is that the author doesn't have such an agenda that it is predictable where they will sit on a particular issue and they mostly back that up with facts and evidence for their point of view. His joint biography of Conrad Black and Barbara Amiel Conrad and Lady Black: Dancing on the Edge was published in November 2006, and an unsuccessful libel case over a passing mention of Daily Express proprietor Richard Desmond in the book was heard in July 2009. I was hoping for more detail and insight into Johnson’s own hospitalisation and brush with death as a result of Covid, but all that Bower presents is a rehash of existing information from other sources. Starting with Ted Heath’s ‘three-day week’, through endless strikes, shortages and devaluation ending with the destructive Winter of Discontent in 1979, the decade had been worse than a waste. As divisive as he is beguiling, as misunderstood as he is scrutinised, Boris Johnson is a singular figure.

Marina kicks him out over his affair with Petronella Wyatt, daughter of Thatcher pal Lord Wyatt, so he lodges with an old Balliol friend, whose wife happens to be the daughter of former cabinet secretary, Robin Butler. Bower vaguely tries to place the blame of Johnson’s considerable personal failings at the door of an abusive childhood but this theme barely makes it past the introduction as Stanley barely makes an appearance in the narrative.

or he might soldier on and end up the hero, buoyed by a strong economic rebound and the victory of the vaccine! Indeed, the last 100 pages of the book provide a turgid day-by-day account of how the pandemic affected the UK, often with little reference to Johnson’s role or involvement. It reads, breathlessly, like a long form news article, full of colour and occasionally questionable conclusions but manages to draw a vivid picture of a highly colourful man. Apparently Boris Johnson’s long-suffering second wife, the human rights lawyer Marina Wheeler, took a similar view: “She unhesitatingly rebuked Stanley for her husband’s sins. But the one thing you take away from this is the old saw - in America, power is derived from wealth, in the UK power is derived from privilege.The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. In the end I came away with enormous respect for Johnson, is continually attacked on all fronts by colleagues within his party, the media in general and the Metropolitan elites in particular, who can never forgive him for clinching Brexit. He is also able to dive into an amazing amount of detail about particular events, meetings and conversations (literally what was in text messages, what people were eating etc. Hopefully the author will publish an updated account when the paperback comes out and then follow up with part two at a later stage of Boris’s career.

It is perhaps also legitimate to ask whether it was proper for Bower to use information gleaned from a vulnerable elderly woman suffering from Parkinson’s without wondering about the misery it might later cause. This book written by Bower, was completed prematurely at the end of the Summer, before the 2nd wave hit, more dithering and indecision occurred and a failure to learn from the mistakes of the 1st time around has left the country in turmoil.At the end of the day about the best Bower can muster is ‘it doesn’t matter if you’re a lascivious misogynist creep if your daddy was one too…’ the morals and the worldview bower is defending make it clear that he just doesn’t consider those things to be all that bad actually. Bower adopts the Dominic Cummings position that Britain is run by unqualified and useless civil servants and bureaucrats and it’s they, not Johnson, who messed up.