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A Life and a Half: The Unexpected Making of a Politician
WINNER OF BEST BIOGRAPHY BY A PARLIAMENTARIAN, WESTMINSTER BOOK AWARDS 2026
The gripping, remarkably candid story of one man's unorthodox life before politics, from Labour minister and Sunday Times-bestselling author Chris Bryant
'Charming, unexpected, honest' RORY STEWART
'One of the handful of sitting MPs who can genuinely write . . . A terrific book, funny, frank and moving in equal measure' FINANCIAL TIMES
Before he was a politician, Chris Bryant was an Anglican priest, baptising babies and holding the hands of the dying. Before that, he manned the barricades in Latin America, and before that, he was the scared son of an alcoholic mother and an estranged father.
This is a no-holds-barred account of a minister's truly unconventional life before politics – one that has left Bryant equally at home behind the altar, in sweaty gay clubs, on the hustings or the stage. With characteristic frankness, he recounts growing up in General Franco's Spain, acting alongside some of the most talented names of the day as a teenager, and caring for his brother and mother as she descended into addiction. He ran the family home from sixteen, became ordained at twenty-four and came out as gay shortly after. And that's just the early years.
A Life and a Half tells a gripping story of bishops and actors, drag queens and pushy candidates, stuffed with moments of joy and hilarity and sorrow and abuse. All while tracking the landscape of late-twentieth-century British politics, from Thatcher to the birth of New Labour. It is a memoir like no other.
The gripping, remarkably candid story of one man's unorthodox life before politics, from Labour minister and Sunday Times-bestselling author Chris Bryant
'Charming, unexpected, honest' RORY STEWART
'One of the handful of sitting MPs who can genuinely write . . . A terrific book, funny, frank and moving in equal measure' FINANCIAL TIMES
Before he was a politician, Chris Bryant was an Anglican priest, baptising babies and holding the hands of the dying. Before that, he manned the barricades in Latin America, and before that, he was the scared son of an alcoholic mother and an estranged father.
This is a no-holds-barred account of a minister's truly unconventional life before politics – one that has left Bryant equally at home behind the altar, in sweaty gay clubs, on the hustings or the stage. With characteristic frankness, he recounts growing up in General Franco's Spain, acting alongside some of the most talented names of the day as a teenager, and caring for his brother and mother as she descended into addiction. He ran the family home from sixteen, became ordained at twenty-four and came out as gay shortly after. And that's just the early years.
A Life and a Half tells a gripping story of bishops and actors, drag queens and pushy candidates, stuffed with moments of joy and hilarity and sorrow and abuse. All while tracking the landscape of late-twentieth-century British politics, from Thatcher to the birth of New Labour. It is a memoir like no other.
330 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 21, 2025
About the author
Chris Bryant
26 books16 followersChristopher John Bryant is a British politician and former Anglican priest who served in government as Deputy Leader of the House of Commons from 2008 to 2009 and Under-Secretary of State for Europe and Asia from 2009 to 2010, and in the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Culture Secretary and Shadow Leader of the House of Commons from 2015 to 2016. He was privately educated at Cheltenham College before studying English at Mansfield College, Oxford. After graduating with a further degree in theology, he worked as a Church of England priest as well as having roles at the BBC and Common Purpose.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 8, 2025
I have read a couple fo books by Chris Bryant and especially liked The Glamour Boys.
I am not quite sure who the audience is for this memoir. It is certainly well written if a little detailed , taking us to the moment he becomes an MP.
It does indeed feel like more than one life, as so much happens from life at a very odd boarding, school, a mother who is addicted to alcohol, contemplating marriage while sleeping with men, becoming a priest and falling out of being a priest and more and more. It feels truthfully and unsparingly told.
Bryant combines writing numerous books with being an active MP and Minister and there is a sense of relentless almost manic energy.
Our paths did cross. I produced a play at university which it seems he performed in. I have absolutely no memory of him which clearly says more about him than me.
I am not quite sure who the audience is for this memoir. It is certainly well written if a little detailed , taking us to the moment he becomes an MP.
It does indeed feel like more than one life, as so much happens from life at a very odd boarding, school, a mother who is addicted to alcohol, contemplating marriage while sleeping with men, becoming a priest and falling out of being a priest and more and more. It feels truthfully and unsparingly told.
Bryant combines writing numerous books with being an active MP and Minister and there is a sense of relentless almost manic energy.
Our paths did cross. I produced a play at university which it seems he performed in. I have absolutely no memory of him which clearly says more about him than me.
August 31, 2025
Very good and especially interesting for one such as myself currently studying at Cuddesdon. Deducted a star because I turned the page at the 75% mark on Kindle expecting to have 25% remaining but this was your standard acknowledgements, pictures, index and so on. As a result I slightly felt it cut off just as it was getting going, but as someone more interested in faith than politics, it suited me fine, just rather abrupt!
June 26, 2026
Extremely interesting and very well-written account of a varied life lived to the full.
March 10, 2026
This is a strange book. It describes an MPs life, before he became an elected official in the House of Commons.
Bryant, the author, has had mixed experiences in life. His parents worked themselves into the upper middle class. Living in Spain, while his father working in senior positions in a variety of industries, he went to boarding school, while his mother became an alcoholic, and no a particularly nice one. He seems to have come upon her passed out from drink, or had to take her to hospital (because of it) regularly.
This said Bryant is obviously intelligent. He did 2 degrees from Oxford (one because he wanted to become a priest), getting a 1st in one, and a 2-1 in the other. He is multilingual. He is good enough as an actor to appear in youth performances opposite famous actors.
Bryant is also gay, and we learn how he moved from accepting his homosexuality, club life and meeting people, and eventually starting to settle down. This whole section is surprisingly honest and open. Bryant is no Lothario, I don’t think, as evidenced in this book.
I both understand and don’t understand how he became a member of the Labour Party after book was finished. Politically it was obvious. This said, he joined late, and it seems to have boiled down to his getting the nicest response from a Labour MP, when he asked a bunch of them (from all parties) why he should join. This seems an odd way to decide, for someone so bright. I also don’t understand why he isn’t more radical, given his experiences in the priesthood, and in South America, dealing with the poverty there.
The last thing that stands out for me in the book is it might need a trigger warning for some around what I might describe as sexual assault? He explains getting a situation where he felt he needed to get a more senior figure in the theatre pass-out drunk to avoid a revolting experience, and what happened when he failed.
So all in all, the book is an interesting read. He seems to be one of those people who has had a life, before becoming an MP. My grumble would be it didn’t leave me feeling warmer towards him? I went from “Who he?” to “Okay, that was interesting”, without any increase of anything but respect.
Oh, and one last thing. The book his about his life before he was an MP. You don’t get any juicy gossip about Corbyn’s or Starmer’s Labour Party.
Bryant, the author, has had mixed experiences in life. His parents worked themselves into the upper middle class. Living in Spain, while his father working in senior positions in a variety of industries, he went to boarding school, while his mother became an alcoholic, and no a particularly nice one. He seems to have come upon her passed out from drink, or had to take her to hospital (because of it) regularly.
This said Bryant is obviously intelligent. He did 2 degrees from Oxford (one because he wanted to become a priest), getting a 1st in one, and a 2-1 in the other. He is multilingual. He is good enough as an actor to appear in youth performances opposite famous actors.
Bryant is also gay, and we learn how he moved from accepting his homosexuality, club life and meeting people, and eventually starting to settle down. This whole section is surprisingly honest and open. Bryant is no Lothario, I don’t think, as evidenced in this book.
I both understand and don’t understand how he became a member of the Labour Party after book was finished. Politically it was obvious. This said, he joined late, and it seems to have boiled down to his getting the nicest response from a Labour MP, when he asked a bunch of them (from all parties) why he should join. This seems an odd way to decide, for someone so bright. I also don’t understand why he isn’t more radical, given his experiences in the priesthood, and in South America, dealing with the poverty there.
The last thing that stands out for me in the book is it might need a trigger warning for some around what I might describe as sexual assault? He explains getting a situation where he felt he needed to get a more senior figure in the theatre pass-out drunk to avoid a revolting experience, and what happened when he failed.
So all in all, the book is an interesting read. He seems to be one of those people who has had a life, before becoming an MP. My grumble would be it didn’t leave me feeling warmer towards him? I went from “Who he?” to “Okay, that was interesting”, without any increase of anything but respect.
Oh, and one last thing. The book his about his life before he was an MP. You don’t get any juicy gossip about Corbyn’s or Starmer’s Labour Party.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews