Just Boris

by Sonia Purnell

A major and controversial new biography of one of the most compelling and contradictory figures in modern British life. Born Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, to most of us he is just ‘Boris’ – the only politician of the age to be regarded in such familiar, even affectionate terms. Uniquely, he combines comedy with erudition, gimlet-eyed focus with jokey self-deprecation, and is a loving family man with a roving eye. He is also a hugely ambitious figure with seemingly no huge ambitions to pursue – other than, perhaps, power itself. In this revealing new biography, written from the vantage point of a once close colleague, Sonia Purnell examines how a shy, young boy from a broken home became our only box-office politician. How the Etonian product fond of Latin tags became a Man of the People; and why he wanted to be. How the gaffe-prone buffoon won the largest personal mandate this country has ever seen; and how the Johnson family built our biggest – and blondest – media and political dynasty. The first forensic account of a remarkable rise to fame and power, Just Boris unravels a political enigma and asks whether the Mayor who dreams of crossing the Thames to Downing Street has what it takes to be Prime Minister.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Politics

561 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Sonia Purnell is a biographer and journalist who has worked at The Economist, The Telegraph, and The Sunday Times. Her book Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill (published as First Lady in the UK) was chosen as a book of the year by The Telegraph and The Independent, and was a finalist for the Plutarch Award. Her first book, Just Boris, was longlisted for the Orwell prize.

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feel much better informed about our new leader after reading this. He's not at all the buffoon that he tries to project himself as. He's actually highly intelligent and ruthlessly ambitious as anyone who has crossed him soon discovers. He also doesn't appear to have any great political vision, he just switches to whatever makes him most popular. His record of not just affairs but twice leaving lovers pregnant would have wrecked any political career in the recent past (remember Cecil Parkinson) and the book even says that if he split with his wife Marina it could destroy him but he subsequently has and it hasn't. They all just go down as him being "Just Boris".

The first half of the book about his childhood, schooldays, Eton and Oxford and the start of his career as a journalist was very revealing. It was particularly interesting to read about his role in stirring up anti EU sentiment in the Tory party through his articles for the Telegraph (I went to see Max Hastings, his then editor, last week at the Edinburgh Book Festival speaking about his new book about Vietnam Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975 and when someone mentioned Boris in a question, he replied that he was "there to speak about tragedies from the past not tragedies of the present!") from Brussels, some of which seem to have been quite sparse on the truth. He contributed in a big way to the Brexit mess that we are in just now, even with what he did many years ago. Latterly and in particular the section at the end on his first term as mayor the book is too long and drags though. Quite an achievement given the interesting subject matter.

Of course the book only covers up to the end of his first term as mayor so misses out his second term, return to politics, role in Brexit, being knifed in the back by Michael Gove, time as foreign secretary and triumphant return as PM. When someone writes an updated biography of Boris that covers all of that and does his early years better than this one, that should make for a really enthralling read!

[Olga Wojtas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book - I don't know whether Sonia Purnell will be updating it in light of current events, but I'd be delighted if she did. It's well written, with an admirably light touch, while being meticulously researched. Purnell and Boris worked together in Brussels, so she has personal insight into what he's like, but she has done her homework with the rest of it. I was an unwitting witness to a tiny part of his story, and am impressed by how accurately Purnell has conveyed it: this is not a scissors-and-paste biography. I hope it's read by every Tory party member preparing to vote for the new leader.

[Disarticulate · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me the quote that sums this book up best is an off the record comment by one of the mayor's associates 'The closer you get to Boris you less you like him.'

Indeed by the end of the book you will see that beneath Johnson's shabby, amiable exterior is a ruthless operator who will do or say anything to promote his own self-interest.

Purnell's biography is a must read for any Londoners unsure who they should vote for in the upcoming elections.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a substantial book that offers a balanced portrait of the celebrity who is currently Mayor of London and, quite possibly, a future Prime Minister. It's clearly based on very thorough research and tries to present a fair and rounded view. It is well written and, while I got bogged down a bit in the middle, it's a good and engaging read.

[Mike Clarke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Inside this fat book there's a (good) thin one struggling to get out....just the one. So much has been written about London's mayor that it's difficult to know where to begin in trying to find out who Just Boris is. Let me make myself plain: I'm not a Tory or Boris voter and am never likely to be, and I'm not won over by his crumbs, I'm a likeable toff persona. But I do admire his almost unwavering ability to garner brilliant publicity whilst achieving little and dodging tough questioning.

I've read the coverage, seen him on telly, tried Andrew Gimson's unsatisfactory hagiography from a few years back: so I came to Sonia Purnell's mighty meaty with high hopes. Some background bio, a robust overview and the key stories were what I was looking for. Did I get it? Yes, and some.

The problem with Just Boris is that there is so much material and so many questions - who, when, why and what the fuck, mainly. Unfortunately in seeking to be comprehensive Purnell fails to edit, or perhaps focus on the really interesting stuff. To get to it, the reader is forced to wade for what feels like years through pages and pages on the 'interesting' Johnson family background (there's a whole village of blond lookylikeys somewhere in the mountains above Ankara apparently), the idiosyncratic family approach to marriage and child rearing, and the Eton/Oxford years. And no, she isn't able to reveal much, try as she might, on whether he ran amuck in the Bullingdon Club. Tiny morsels of 'gosh really?' compete with wodges of frankly indigestible detail, of interest surely to the Nick Robinson type political spod who gets breathlessly excited about turgid Westminster village gossip ('Boris didn't send Dave a christmas card' 'ooooohhhh').

Worse, the lack of editing is betrayed in repetition, which is irksome. We're told two if not three times that Mrs Boris, Marina, prefers 'cheerful practicality' in the family home rather than fashion or elegance, a rather clunking counterpoint to the various cut glass Home Counties types Boris is shagging around with. Simon Heffer, who may be uncomfortably constipated at the loucheness of modern life is, nonetheless, the leading Tory commentator of his generation and doesn't need to be introduced all over again when he makes a second appearance a couple of hundred pages later. The reader has a longer attention span than the average audience of a Channel 4 documentary.

Realistically, the sequence of events we're interested in is Johnson's time at the Sextator/Johnsonator (as it was alternately known, due to the bonktastic regime Boris ran there, and the relentless promotion not just of himself but his nearest and dearest). Then comes Henley with Boris running for MP and running up against the pop-eyed, mean-spirited, suburban, petit bourgeois old women of both sexes (thanks, Simon Hoggart) that comprises the Tory party in the shires. (Henley's thought that it was Marina's fault he'd had affairs.) Finally there's his take on the mayorality, which is where Purnell really comes into her own, arguing that Boris didn't really have a clue what he wanted to do once he got the job, he just wanted it for its own sake.

About 200 pages too long and in sore need of a sub-editor, this is nevertheless the best summation of the man, the myth, the mayor/'mare yet. Its doorstop quality will come invaluable as source material when the definitive history is written, perhaps even by the man himself, as his memory would appear to be rather faulty.

[Immigration Art · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sonia Purnell, a former colleague who worked with Boris at the Telegraph's Brussels Bureau in the 1990s, offers a close up and nuanced assessment of Boris: from HS time studying in the elite institutions of Eton and Oxford, to working for the Telegraph, to running The Spectator magazine, through his political career as an MP, and eventually Mayor of London. The tale stops there, in 2011 . . . well before Brexit, Theresa May, and Boris the Prime Minister (who got Brexit done, and wrapped up, when others simply could not).

Purnell concludes her concise, amusing, and revealing biography by observing that Boris is "[c]omplicated, original, surprising and inspiring, however, he is without doubt the most interesting public figure in Britain today [2011]. In short, he has the gifts and the artistry to be the 'break-the-mould leader' that the country so desperately needs [in 2011] but he is capable of much, much more than he gives -- indeed, he disappoints far more than he offends."

This observation, made by the author as Boris was concluding his first term as London's Mayor, is a perfect summary of the facts as she presents them as of 2011. Can the same summation be offered today, in 2021, at this point in the era of Prime Minister Boris? Or is it too early to tell?

[Katedurie50 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is either too long (too much Mayoral stuff latterly, though some sharp insight into BJ handling Mayor's Questions with bluster, bluff, filibuster, jokes but never an answer - his favourite film is Dodgeball) or too short (I'd love an update). But it is tremendously revealing, even if it only confirms what many of us suspect, that Boris's great achievement is the creation of a character called "Boris", who uses jokes, the shambolic, the fulsome apology to evade all responsibility and to mask his ruthless ambition. And it works. The details here are telling, from BJ quite deliberately mussing his hair before meeting the public, to - this one I like - his only appearance is a play at Eton, taking the title role in Richard III. So let's see... charming, sociopath, surprisingly successful with women, gets the audience on side with comedy, murderously determined on his own rise at anyone's expense and entirely solipsistic...You get the picture. Moreover BJ couldn't be bothered to learn the part so had his lines pasted on the back of various pillars.
Glad I read this.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Confirmed my belief that Boris Johnson is only interested in power and not what he can achieve with it. Clearly an intelligent man but lacks morals and passion for anything other than himself.

[Kevin McMahon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read that covers up to the end of the criminals first term as Mayor of London. Reasonably balanced but does betray a soft spot for the clown and prize narcissist as so many others have. No doubt he is a clever person but is only in it for himself. If you read this you may find yourself getting annoyed at just how much he has got away with over the years.

[Hasan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Journalist Simon Heffer once wrote “Mr. (Boris) Johnson is not a politician. He is an act. For some of us the joke has worn not thin, but out. Yet many less cynical than I am find it appealing. It conceals two things: a blinding lack of attention to detail and ruthless ambition. He is pushy, he is thoughtless, he is indiscreet about his private life; none of this matters much to anyone these days, which is why he has gone so far in spite of them, and tomorrow may go further still.” Heffer wrote that in 2008 when Johnson beat ken Livingstone to be the mayor of London, however his words have struck a chord with me while I was reading Sonia Purnell’s ‘Just Boris – a Tale of Blond Ambition,’ an unauthorised biography of Johnson with a variety of sources on and it seems off the record.

Johnson, the man who voted and campaigned for Brexit, the man who pulled out of the race to succeed David Cameron as the Tory leader and Prime Minister, and widely blamed for not having a plan post referendum coupled with half-baked lies during the campaign has Heffer’s analysis spot on. Johnson supported Brexit not for the national interest but more out of blind ambition. My perspective was Johnson supported Brexit, assuming remain would win by a small margin, yet Johnson would be in a strong position to succeed Cameron as PM when he would stand aside due to his euro-sceptic credentials which he would have amassed during the Brexit campaign. Yet, as we know that was not the case as the country voted to leave the European Union, and somewhat put Johnson’s blind ambition slightly on hold.

Written before the 2012 Mayoral election, Purnell’s biography managed to get into the psyche of Boris, even though she did not speak to the man or his family at all. The New Statesman called it a ’Thorough study...sharply narrated and diligently researched.' Standpoint called it ‘Meticulous and quietly devastating,’ while Camila Long of the Sunday Times said the book was “Filled with gems ... will make uncomfortable reading for Boris.”

Purnell uses the book as a forensic examination of Boris with facts, humour and analysis backed up by quotes and recollections. She demonstrates that the man who is seen as a bumbler, buffoon and butt of jokes on Have I Got News For You does not go through Eton and Oxford, gets elected as President of the Oxford Union, works for the Daily Telegraph in Brussels, becomes editor of the Spectator and then goes into politics as MP and Mayor of London yet maintain the popular charisma and charm and the odd affair. Boris comes across as a buffoon yet Purnell shows that behind the buffoonery is a man who knows what he really wants.

Purnell succeeds in speaking to people who love and loath Boris. Reading the book brought some interesting facts and stories about Boris made me admire him for his determination, yet made me also loath him for his contempt for public service by using it as celebrity, lack of facts and lack of attention to detail.

Purnell, if she wants to could write up volume II of ‘Blond Ambition,’ exposing and analysing the second term of as mayor of London, his quest as MP, plans to usurp and hopefully replace David Cameron. Reasons for supporting Brexit, the fallout of Brexit and what the future will hold for Boris and his naked ambition to climb the greasy pole of British politics.

[Akin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Competent, well-researched and sober biography. The author’s true achievement lies in using the word ‘sociopath’ only once in four hundred-odd pages - and that quoting Polly Toynbee, the ‘liberal’ columnist.

Running up to the last year of Johnson’s first term as Mayor of London (2012), the book’s main failing lies in weighing a bit too heavily, unfiltered, towards these last years (as of 2012) of his political career. Nevertheless, covers his life and political career up to that point very well - useful detail about friends, school and family - especially his father - gives interpretive heft to the author’s subtle commentary.

What does shine through is the fact that If any other politician had transgressed as repeatedly and as flagrantly as the (current) Member for Uxbridge, they’d be luck to have a career selling double glazing today. A combination of charm, cunning, survival instincts, a plausible manner and sheer shamelessness seems to have seen him through every one of the many crises he has faced.

The biography, in an odd way, foreshadows the years to come (and yet to come). Johnson supporting Brexit isn’t, and shouldn’t have been, surprising, either from an ‘ideological’ (Johnson’s ideology being himself, evidently), politically (he made his name as a journalist by kicking the EU, hard and repeatedly), or personally (his ambition, we come to understand through this book, knows no bounds, and he quite conceivably would support any cause so long as it is a means to his ends). One is tempted, now, to frame Gove’s stabbing of Johnson in the back as a Sydney Carton moment - ultimately unsuccessful. And, quite possibly, it places in context the real possibility, with a fair following wind, that AB deP Johnson may yet be the next prime minister of the United Kingdom.

[Lois Tuffield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boris Johnson is a fascinating man, and this book appears to give an impartial description of his life up until the end of his first term as Mayor of London. He comes over as a horrible person with an incredible charisma - a man who charms his way out of major crises, both personal and political. It was an interesting and informative read, and its obvious that a great deal of research underpins the book.

[Lucy Van liew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and readable

[Luting Chen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm giving this book five stars for the first four chapters I read during my 14-hour emotional rollercoaster flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong yesterday. Never in my life have I made such a last minute reservation, and I briefly thought about what I could bring with the looming fear that I might be bald for the rest of my life, maybe Boris's biography.

As an honourary Londoner, I have never obtained such meticulous and quietly devastating insights into the ex-mayor's upbringing, which translated into the ruthless prime minister we see today with a strong sense of humour and a font of uncomplaining tolerance in the face of tremendous adversity.

Having lived a pretty nomadic lifestyle myself, I can't even imagine what life would be like moving houses a total of 32 times during Boris's childhood - living in five cities, five London boroughs, one Somerset village, three US states, three countries and two continents. Maybe Boris and Rachel (Boris's sister) could brush it off lightly today about being dropped off alone at the Gare du Nord in Brussels, having to take the train to Ostend, then the ferry to Dover and the train to Victoria, I bet no words can describe how scary the experience was as 11-year-old kids.

It also appears that as a child, Boris had been greatly affected by his own father's philandering and promiscuity, his mother's depression and their eventual divorce. While his adolescent way of coping was to make himself invulnerable so that he would never experience such pain again, I wonder what led him to lead an adult life later on that bears striking resemblance to his father's - perhaps his growing aptitude as an emotionally literate companion to women (mostly his poor mother Charlotte), shed some early lights for his later marriages.

One thing that I can fundamentally relate to Sonia's portrayal of Boris is the overwhelming sense of entitlement combined with traces of the insecurities of the outsider at boarding school (and of course, Eton for Boris). Perhaps I did not fully get over the outsider feeling till second year at Cambridge even though I exercised my freedom of choice to be wherever I desire.

Four chapters in, I feel a lot better about my situation and start to understand that bad things happen, but you have to move past it. Leave it behind. The sooner, the better. Or it’ll eat away at you and stop you from moving forward.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read somewhere that this is a great, balanced account of Boris Johnson (up to the point when he is about to campaign for his second term as London Mayor in 2012), so I thought it would be worth checking out, a case of getting to know the enemy, if you like. While I'm inclined to think the author holds more affection for Johnson than she lets on, this is a very fair-minded biography that attempts to answer why someone so disorganised and to such an extent disconnected with 'normal' society' has developed into probably the biggest celebrity politician of the age.

What emerges is a figure far more calculating and ambitious than his public persona suggests - the bumbling and dishevelled appearance is an act. It was shaped during his Eton days and has served him up until very recently, beyond the remit of the book in fact, when his image has hardened into what it has become. He's also been nothing if not consistent - from his earliest media days he's criticised Europe, so it should really come as little surprise to see him revealed as Prince Brexiteer. There's an argument that even this is part of an elaborate act, playing the role because he's fully aware that Euro-scepticism is so prevalent in England (and let's fact it, he performs for the English - the rest of the UK is of little concern to him).

The point is the pursuit of power, of influence, a charming and nearly magical bit of trickery that somehow makes him engage with a wider public that should by all rights see him as being part of an archaic upper class and of no relevance, let alone understanding when it comes to their issues.

What you think of Johnson is unlikely to change from reading the book, but it does work to reinforce your feelings. There's little about him for me to like, and many personality traits that are exposed in this volume - his selfishness, what seems like a callous disregard for his partner(s), his happiness at taking the credit for others' work, almost a sociopathic disregard for other people - are amplified. It's a fine and well researched work, easy to read even if it gets a little bogged down in some of the London minutiae, and frighteningly enough it suggests what we are getting as our Prime Minister is someone who's almost entirely unfit for purpose.

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-written & researched, speedy & gossipy biography.

Boris is certainly a chip off the old block. His father, Stanley, worked for a think-tank on population control, until his personal population explosion made him a laughing-stock, and he resigned with a very lucrative leaving gift. His absence & constant affairs contributed to his wife suffering depression & being admitted to hospital. So young Boris & his sister were waived off from home in Belgium, and had to find their own way to boarding school in East Sussex. As this didn’t kill them, it no doubt aided their ‘can-do, go-for it’ confidence, self-reliance, opportunism & bouncy optimism.

Never one to turn down an opportunity to make money & self-promote, a typical year saw Boris juggling 4 children, a wife & 2+ simultaneous affairs, editing the Spectator, writing copiously including a book, fronting a tv history series, being an MP... catch breath. Taking on so much he would exasperate colleagues by being unprepared/ late / somewhere else, & generally flying by the seat of his pants, then making copious apologies, before continuing on as usual.

Purcell suggests he stood for Mayor simply to up his profile, and then was rather daunted when it looked as though he may win the vote. How could he cope with the drop in income. It paying a measly £100k per year, which was the same amount as the kids’ school fees? So he wangled sideline work to get to a more respectable £350k+. After all he needs that extra money to take his wife on extravagant hols each time the public humiliation of his womanising/ impregnating gets too much for her.

The book was written in 2012, with Boris wondering if he can combine a 2nd term as Mayor & being an MP.

As I read this, Boris has just become Prime Minister (how will he cope with the income-drop, this position pays much less than London Mayor?). But he has landed the job he always felt entitled to, that was his destiny. Whether he is still PM by the time you read this of course is another matter altogether...

[Budge Burgess · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book which is good in parts, a book which shouldn't be ignored simply because it was published while Johnson was Mayor of London in 2011. Johnson's obsession with becoming Prime Minister was clearly obvious long before 2011 - the world, European and UK politics have changed much since then. Purnell offers a retrospective on the earlier Johnson.
Purnell worked as a journalist for the 'Telegraph' beside Johnson. Her outlook is decidedly English (the UK is made up of four nations, people like Johnson tend to assume it is England, the rest is baggage). She is decidedly middle class, has a Southern English outlook. She has worked for the Tory supporting press and has extensive contacts in the world of journalism - something she shares with Johnson. Her analysis, therefore, comes from a fairly narrow focus, and one not to dissimilar to Johnson's.
It's a well-researched book, well-written. It is, to say the least, not uncritical of Johnson ... although you feel she pulls her punches in places. Of course, given England's libel laws, erring on the side of caution may be a good practice for writers. She is not uncritical ... there are chapters describing events, you feel you'd like to go back, pore through the media coverage at the time ... and maybe wait another few years to read the published memoirs of those involved.
You get the distinct impression that Johnson is a fake, that it's all image blinding people to the fact he has no values and little or no ability as a leader, manager: he is certainly no visionary, other than his vision of himself as the wisest, greatest man in the world to whom all should defer. It's pure celebrity act - a man striving for attention, grooming his audience, playing to the crowd. A man convinced that he is entitled to the top job, that he should be king of the world. And he's a fake.
So, despite the fact that it's not current, that it's now a few years out of date, it's still a valuable read, a corrective on the propaganda Johnson parades.

[Tudor Rickards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Boris Johnson is a larger than life figure, a brilliant writer, with a cultivated bumbling style, a career journalist turned politician.
His biographer chose the title ‘Just Boris’, echoing a fictional schoolboy in ‘Just William’, and in other books by Richmal Crompton. William Brown was an endearing but quintessentially a scruffy school kid, always getting into scrapes. In this Biography,
Boris Johnson is portrayed similarly gets into scapes leading him to be fired by editors and once in Parliament by his political leader, after falsely denying an affair.
His images today continued to show a dishevelled appearance particularly his hair, now a slightly receding mop, and much replicated by cartoonists.
His rise in politics has been aided by show biz appearances (like Donald Trump), appearing on a comic chat show, trading witticisms with professional comedians.
Boris Johnson’s ambition as a child is described In the book as the frequently statement attributed to him that he wanted to be ‘king of the world’.
Just Boris was written before his political battles which were to lead to his arrival at the top of the political greasy pole as Prime Minister. However, the personality traits in his earlier life described in the book seem well-replicated in his more recent political and personal behaviours.
In that respect, Just Boris remains a valuable document and a rattling good read

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written, thorough book with interesting insights on Boris Johnson. Spoiler Alert: He’s a narcissistic man, who manipulates with his calculated buffoonery. He was tip of the spear for Politicians as Celebrities and in my opinion we are all worse off because of it.

As an American reader, I was motivated by a desire to contrast Johnson and Trump (who wasn’t really on the political radar at the time covered). There are similarities, but many differences too. Definitely not cut from the same cloth.

I only gave 3 stars because the book is a little dated, which I didn’t realize initially. Not the fault of the author, but If the book were written today there might be a bit less painstaking detail about his mayoral campaign because there would be bigger things to come (Brexit, PM, Covid…)

I struggled to keep up with so many UK political players who I had never heard of. British readers would have an advantage.

[PAUL DEWSON · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good, well researched biography of one of the most controversial figures in modern politics . We follow Boris from childhood, through his schooling at Eton and Oxford. Then his early career as a journalist at the Telegraph and Spectator. Finally his move in to politics as MP for Henley and finally his election as London mayor. Sonia Purnell reveals a complex personality. The bumbling dishevelled figure hides an ambitious and at times ruthless politician. Love him or loath him you can't ignore him.

[Susan Wishart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not everyone's cup of tea but if you enjoy people and politics this is a well researched and very interesting portrait of an enigmatic character who will play a major part in the paradigm shift in UK politics. Long winded and tedious in parts but worth persevering.

[Nigel Mphisa]

Very good book.

Interesting to see how well it has aged! written up to just before boris johnson's 2nd mayoral election you get a feel for the man and his ambition and the way he keeps himslef apart from other people.

It is well written.

[Brynmore Wilkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brynmore’s Book Club “Self-absorbed sociopath and serial liar” Polly Toynbee, The Guardian.

Brilliantly written. The research involved and sheer depth of detail make the facts undoubtedly authentic. Sonia is one of my new fabulous clients and Boris apparently never challenged a word of it 🤔

[Bede Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very thorough look into the man behind the buffoonery, the very insular childhood, the rising star in euro-sceptic journalism, the colourful and brilliant writer, the notorious scandals, right through to his tenure as mayor of london.

[Alex Large · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very detailed, a bit of a slog near the end but a great resource

[Noelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, considering I knew absolutely nothing about British politics much less who BJ is, I consider it a good book to understand the PM.

[Arild Nygaard · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly balanced biography, but at times a bit unstructured - perhaps a bit like Boris himself.

[Ruth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readable and revealing, if a little class-obsessed at times.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the book's review 'blurbs' sums it up best: "Meticulous and quietly devestating."