A lively, idiosyncratic, witty look at the heart of our political process by a man who has crossed over from observer to activist, to become one of our newest members of parliament. Boris Johnson, celebrated for his blonde thatch of hair as well as for his brilliant writing in the newspapers, and much liked for his appearances on television and radio, took notes throughout his period as prospective candidate and the election campaign. The result is a book that is lovely and fascinating, outspoken and funny, and yet raises real questions about the democratic process. Have you ever wondered about becoming a Member of Parliament? Or why other people do? Or considered what the prospective parliamentary candidates do as they stump around the constituency - making speeches, kissing babies, knocking on front doors, providing newspaper copy? Or what difference it makes to us? Boris Johnson has been a candidate in two elections. As a journalist, he is used to writing about politicians. Now he is himself being interviewed. So what does it feel like, with the tables turned? In his own inimitable style, Boris Johnson writes about his views on the role of MPs and what they can achieve today. He comments on life on the stump, and the pleasure (mostly) of meeting voters, on political parties, current issues, and how to persuade people to vote - all interwoven with stories of what happened to him on his way to a meeting...

The number one bestselling memoir of one of New Labour's three founding architects, now with a revealing new chapter updating this paperback edition. Peter Mandelson is one of the most influential politicians of modern times. The Third Man is his story - of a life played out in the backroom and then on the frontline of the Labour Party during its unprecedented three terms in government. Much of the book is devoted to the defining political relationships of Peter Mandelson's life - with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Charting what he terms the 'soap-opera' years of the Labour government, his book continues to ruffle feathers with an updated preface bringing the story up to the tempestuous present.

In the late 1980s, Edwina Currie was the second most prominent woman in British politics - after Margaret Thatcher. This second volume of her diaries begins in 1992 with her refusal to serve in John Major's government and covers her life in Parliament up to the election of Tony Blair's Labour government. It also covers her emergence as a bestselling author, commentator, broadcaster and performer.

Austria experienced remarkable economic and social growth in the years following World War II, especially considering the troubled nature of its politics. A small, land-locked country, Austria has emerged as the European Union's fourth richest state, yet it still wrestles with old decisions and demons. Merging personal observation with rich historical scholarship, a renowned journalist and award-winning memoirist tracks Austria's unique trajectory, beginning the origins of its peoples and following through to the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1918. Paul Lendvai investigates whether Austrians have come to terms with Hitler s Anschluss and the Waldheim affair and how they have met the challenge of Jorg Haider s radical right-wing ascendancy. Lendvai identifies a positive moral toughness, internal cohesion, and social discipline within Austria, especially during the years of occupation and subsequent crises, such as the Hungarian Revolution, the Prague Spring, and the Yugoslav wars. A probing study of Austria's long quest for nationhood, this volume offers a firsthand look at the factors and players that have influenced an evolving power.Praise for the German edition: Daring, exciting, unmasking...Lendvai presents hitherto hardly known facts and] incredible details.& mdash; NEWS (Vienna Weekly)Lendvai seeks to explain what Austria is like. He has succeeded exactly in this endeavor.& mdash; Die Wel

Not Without a Fight is the long-awaited autobiography of Helen Zille, one of South Africa's most important political figures. Zille takes the reader back to her humble family origins, her early career as a journalist at the Rand Daily Mail, where she wrote the story exposing Steve Biko's murder, and her involvement with the End Conscription Campaign and the Black Sash. She documents her journey through the ranks of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Alliance, and recalls her experiences as leader of the DA, mayor of Cape Town and premier of the Western Cape. In the process she speaks frankly about colleagues and opponents, and reveals fascinating insights about what happened behind the political scenes. Readers will also meet a Helen Zille they did not know: a warm person, a devoted mother, and someone with an earthy sense of humour. This book is as frank, honest and uncompromising as Helen Zille herself, and will appeal to anyone interested in the story of South Africa politics over the part fifty years.

He was a young Texas power-broker. The wealthy scion of the state's most popular governor. And, in 1976, Price Daniel, Jr., shocked his social set by marrying Vickie Carroll, a waitress at the local Dairy Queen--a marriage with tragic consequences. Taking us step by step through the investigation and two trials, this is the behind-the-scenes account of a charmed life destroyed by money, politics, family discord, and sexual perversion. With all the drama of courtroom fiction, it retells the dark secrets of a troubled aristocrat--and the controversial, surprise verdict that will set your heart pounding.--Cover

John Beckett was a rising political star. Elected as Labour's youngest M.P. in 1924, he was constantly in the news and tipped for greatness. But ten years later he was propaganda chief for Mosley's fascists, and one of Britain's three best known anti-Semites. Yet his mother, whom he loved, was a Jew. Her ancestors were Solomons, Isaacs and Jacobsons, originally from Prussia. He successfully hid his Jewish ancestry all his life - he said his mother's family were "fisher folk from the east coast." His son, the author of this book, acclaimed political biographer and journalist Francis Beckett, did not discover the truth until John Beckett had been dead for years. He left Mosley and founded the National Socialist League with William Joyce, later Lord Haw Haw, and spent the war years in prison, considered a danger to the war effort. For the rest of his life, and all of Francis Beckett's childhood, John Beckett and his family were closely watched by the security services. Their devious machinations, traced in records only recently released, damaged chiefly his young family. This is a fascinating and brutally honest account of a troubled man in turbulent times.

The gripping inside story of the complex and ambitious Chancellor of the Exchequer's time in power. Gordon Brown's arrival at the Treasury in May 1997 was greeted by a stampede--officials of every rank spontaneously rushed to the door to cheer the new incumbent, excited about the change. As Master of the New Era, Brown created a matrix of relationships across every Whitehall department, and extended his influence to every aspect of government activity. He has been behind the most important budgetary decisions of the past decade: the commitment to Private Finance Initiative, which would affect infrastructure from the London Underground to the NHS to state schools; the management of the Inland Revenue; the increase in taxes; and the demise of Britain's pension funds. Seven years after his arrival at the most powerful department at Whitehall, Brown is now a contender to be the next leader of the Labour Party, but despite extensive newspaper coverage of his activities, his personal agenda has not yet been investigated and described. In this gripping biography of the Chancellor, Tom Bower--author of the best-selling Broken Dreams--documents the rise to power of a driven and complex politician, exposing conflicts within the government and exploring how the repercussions of Brown's ambitions will affect the country for decades to come.

One of the most prominent and intriguing figures in contemporary British politics, David Blunkett has risen from being a councillor in his native Sheffield to becoming the home secretary. This is the story of his climb up the political ladder, as well as of his determination to overcome his disability.

Throughout history, revolutions have been a potent force of social, economic and political change. The Encyclopedia of Revolutions and Revolutionaries: From Anarchism to Zhou Enlai is the first single-volume encyclopedia devoted to this significant historical phenomenon. Written by a team of international scholars, the book's more than 500 entries cover periods of unrest and change from antiquity to the present, including the Spartacus RevoEncompassing history and the world, The Encyclopedia of Revolutions and Revolutionaries brings to life the forms of revolutions and resistance movements undertaken to effect fundamental societal change; the non-violent and passive demonstrations that have transformed the world; and the intellectual and economic upheavals that have shaped human thought and institutions.

A study of six prominent postwar politicians in the United Kingdom. Making the Weather is the story of six postwar politicians, all of whom exerted an outsized influence on the political life of the United Kingdom--an influence greater than that of most prime ministers. Vernon Bogdanor's cast includes three from the political Left--Aneurin "Nye" Bevan, Roy Jenkins, and Tony Benn--and three from the Right--Enoch Powell, Keith Joseph, and Nigel Farage. Each study is a fascinating analysis examining how these men achieved such prominence and influence and how, though very different figures in many ways, they came to dominate the political landscape, often for years. Each of the six made fundamental contributions to the debate about Britain's future and to the vibrancy of British democracy. From immigration to Europe, from the National Health Service to devolution, the issues and causes that brought these men to prominence are still relevant.

In this vivid memoir, Silviu Brucan traces half a century of East European history, bringing to life the drama of a generation caught between the 1944 communist revolution and the 1989 anticommunist revolution. Brucan himself was at the heart of political power from World War II through the formation of a new government after the overthrow of Nicolae Ceausescu. After participating in the antifascist underground movement in World War II, he became acting editor of Romania's leading communist daily. He served as Romania's ambassador to the United States and then as its ambassador to the United Nations. He later grew disenchanted with the Ceausescu regime, becoming a prime mobilizer of popular support for reform and subsequently one of the leaders of the National Salvation Front. Brucan's insider position gave him a unique perspective on the inner workings of the Gheorghiu-Dej and Ceausescu regimes as well as of the political machinations of Soviet and other East European leaders. He reveals for the first time the details - available nowhere else - of secret meetings between communist leaders: the 1944 conspiracy with King Michael against the German occupation; the extraordinary 1945 meeting between Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and Joseph Stalin when the Soviet dictator decided that Georghiu-Dej and not Ana Pauker should lead the Romanian Communist Party; the secret mission assigned to Gheorghiu-Dej by Nikita Khrushchev during the 1956 revolution to install Janos Kadar as leader of the communist party; the 1958 Khrushchev-Gheorghiu-Dej meeting after a bear hunt in the Carpathians, which appeared to be a chat between two canny old peasants but concluded with Khrushchev's decision to withdraw Soviet troops from Romania; and Ceausescu's astute maneuver to seize power while Gheorghiu-Dej was on his deathbed. Brucan then recounts the real story behind the 1989 revolution, which was rooted in earlier plots to overthrow Ceausescu. He traces his own memorable transformation from staunch communist to outspoken critic of the regime, weaving his own story within the larger framework of his country's transformation and hopes for the future.

A political adviser to the formidably intellectual Foreign Secretary Tony Crosland and to Prime Minister Jim Callaghan, and a senior journalist at The Times and The Economist, David Lipsey has been close to the heart of government for more than four decades. Providing a unique perspective on a period of great economic and political upheaval, In the Corridors of Power details such flashpoints as the 1976?77 IMF crisis, which saw Britain under a divided government hovering on the edge of national bankruptcy, and reveals why Jim Callaghan ducked an election in 1978? and led Labour to disast ...