John Major (ePub)

WINNER OF THE POLITICO'S BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD

In his leadership of his party and his country, and in facing up to the new order after the Labour general election victory in May 1997, John Major acted with a dignity rare in politics. His acclaimed autobiography is one of the most personal and revealing ever written by a former British Prime Minister. The account of his childhood, rise and fall is candid, scrupulous and unsparing.

Major's early life was extraordinary; his rise through Parliament meteoric. Soon a favourite of Margaret Thatcher, he became Foreign Secretary and then Chancellor of the Exchequer. When Thatcher fell, he fought and won a shrewd campaign to succeed her. With the Gulf War and the Maastricht Treaty behind him, and the Poll Tax abolished, he won a remarkable victory in the general election of 1992. He brought down inflation and ushered in a solid economic recovery. He made decisive steps towards peace in Northern Ireland. Yet within months of the election his government was in troubled waters. John Major is candid about his fight to keep sterling in the ERM and his reactions to defeat on 'Black Wednesday'. He is frank about the civil war that emerged within his party over Britain's relationship with the European Union. He is honest about what he won and what he lost, and about his friends and foes within his party as well as outside.

"Beautifully written, utterly convincing and consistently interesting, the best political memoir for decades"
PHILIP HENSHER, 'Spectator' Books of the Year

"One of the few post-war political memoirs that will endure"
BRUCE ANDERSON, 'Daily Telegraph'

"The best prime ministerial memoir - discounting Churchill - since the genre began"
JOHN CAMPBELL, 'Independent' Books of the Year