Boris Johnson: The Gambler

by Tom Bower

Guardian ‘literary highlights of 2020’
Sunday Times ‘books to watch out for in 2020’
New Statesman ‘books to read in 2020’
Evening Standard ‘thirteen titles to look for in 2020’

Tom Bower is acknowledged as Britain’s leading investigative writer. His 24 bestselling books encompass a remarkably wide range of subjects. His most recent books include the most authoritative and best-selling account of Tony Blair’s decade as prime minister and the definitive biographies of Gordon Brown and Geoffrey Robinson MP.

With his trademark access, insight and candour, Britain’s leading investigative biographer tackles his most fascinating subject yet: Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.

Genres: Politics, Biography, Nonfiction, History

578 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 2020

About the author

For the author of works on child development, see T.G.R. Bower

Tom Bower (born 28 September 1946) is a British writer, noted for his investigative journalism and for his unauthorized biographies.

A former Panorama reporter, his books include unauthorised biographies of Tiny Rowland, Robert Maxwell, Mohamed Al-Fayed, Geoffrey Robinson, Gordon Brown and Richard Branson.

He won the 2003 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award for Broken Dreams, an investigation into corruption in English football. 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.

An unauthorised biography by Bower of Richard Desmond, provisionally entitled Rough Trader, awaits publication. Bowers's biography of Simon Cowell, written with Cowell's co-operation, was published on 20 April, 2012.

Bower is married to Veronica Wadley, former editor of the London Evening Standard, and has four children.

Reviews

[Robert Craven · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a secret Santa gift, (paperback) & having given Johnson's truly awful 'The Churchill Factor' a one-star review, decided to read it to see if there was any positive angle to Johnson.

The problem from the beginning is Bower like the rest of the UK's 4th estate seems enamoured with BJ - from his messianic scrabble game at the age of 10 beating all takers to the bewildering acceptance of BJ's disregard for acceptable journalist practice. Bower highlights and no doubt supports the British notion of being superior in every way to other member states of the EU albeit through Johnson's skewed lens. (Bower is a Daily Mail journalist - so that's like Pravda writing about Putin)

The book is written in a breathless OK! manner and yes, the father Stanley is a dissolute wastrel and wife abuser, which Boris too has embraced gleefully, but many other people came out of dysfunctional families to do something relevant and useful.

If in any way light is shed on BJ, nothing new is revealed. 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.

like 'The Churchill Factor', an utter waste of paper.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this unauthorised biography of Boris Johnson totally engrossing - it came across to me as a balanced and unbiased representation of his life and career about a man whose behaviour has been, on occasion, maddening and reprehensible. And yet I couldn't avoid feeling a grudging respect for him at times, certainly in the way he was treated by civil servants when Foreign Secretary under Teresa May and some of the bad press he has received over his handling of the Covid pandemic. A really enjoyable and well-written read, I will certainly be looking for more of this author's biographies - 9/10.

[Jules S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining and informative read, but the last 100 pages on Covid feel out of place. If it hadn’t been for that unbalanced ending, I would have given this book four stars.

[Keith Weller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never read anything by Tom Bower, but from the first pages in you are hooked. It is well written from a man who gets Boris.
It shows Boris as the fool he is but also a clever man, a man who suffers depression, has not got much respect for his dad.
His dad was an absent father and violent husband, who punched his wife so hard he broke her nose. Boris is totally about how much money he has, he craves power then gets bored with it. He is very lazy and gives out jobs to people so he doesn’t have to do them. Dominic Cummings totally rules everything Boris does. After reading this book I can see him being off by the middle of next year if not earlier, he really is the English Donald Trump!

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too opinionated

This book has been thoroughly researched but it annoys me considerably that the author’s own prejudices and political views shine through. A biography should be factual. I am not interested in Bower’s opinions on ancillary characters.

[Jane Macnaghten · Rating 3 out of 5]

I decided to skim the last half of the book and to return when I wanted to know more about a specific incident. The first half was a good read and showed over and over again the problem with a PM like Boris -- how he charms and how he fails and makes a fool of himself. His rather sad childhood.

[Zelony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reams of detail & really well researched. For that I give the first three stars. But I was left with the feeling that Bower wants Boris to be forgiven for his dreadful father & unstable upbringing. If not forgiven at least there’s a consistent invitation to understand his behaviour in the context of his childhood (including Oxford). I felt that despite the warts and all approach, we are supposed to see Boris as a victim, misunderstood, even manipulated. Bower readily characterises other ancillary characters as failed, average, unremarkable, etc. & does so fairly crudely with throwaway ease. It feels like he has an axe to grind and is not subtle in asking you accept his dismissive analysis of others. He dedicates a significant part of the later quarter of the book to Covid, where I think he went so off-piste with his confident analysis that I felt the whole thrust of this bio was to absolve Boris of any culpability and to frame him as potentially one of the greats - if only we and the media would give him a chance.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s very rare that I find a biography so hard to put down that I put away 300 pages in one weekend, but this one hit the spot! It’s a fair, very enjoyably written account of a fascinating character - love or loathe him.

What really let it down was the appalling - or absence of - editing. The sentence structure was terrible at times. More than that, the litany of mis-spelled words : “his principle enemy”; “the principle reason he did X...”; the word “principal” barely featured. “The dye was cast”... I could list example after example. It’s really appalling that a work likely to draw so much attention received so little when it came to the editorial department.

[Douwe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is it a coincidence that a book about Boris Johnson, a known liar, doesn't stick to the truth as much? Probably not.

The book starts off fine: family history, early years, etc., but starts spiralling out of control when the political career starts.

It goes from very one-sided information to something nearing fiction when the chapters about the pandemic start. Johnson is never to blame for the devastating failures that cost tens of thousands of lives. His advisors were shit, the scientists were constantly wrong, and his cabinet was full of idiots (okay that might actually be true). Johnson simply tried his best, but naively listened to the wrong people.

I simply hope people have been watching the Covid inquiries last week. Absolute shameful book by Bori- I mean Bower.

Positives? Harry Lloyd was, as always, a wonderful narrator.

[Budge Burgess · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given Bower's reputation for incendiary biographies of one or two press barons, this is a surprisingly generous appraisal of Johnson ... bordering on sycophantic. If the first half dozen chapters about Johnson's childhood and schooldays are interesting, it's significant that the last quarter of the book is devoted to a hurried effort to prove that Johnson didn't mishandle the first few months of Covid and that he had in fact been let down by the scientists and civil servants.
Bower makes excuses for Johnson ... makes excuse after excuse - his father was a womaniser, beat his mother in front of him, the children were forced to witness their mother being admitted to hospital with a nervous breakdown, etc. The poor boy might have joined in the vandalism of the Bullingdon Club ... but he was really only an innocent bystander, etc.
The man cheats on his wives, he lies, he manipulates, he lets people down, he is an egomaniac concerned only about himself, he will do whatever is necessary to get to the top and can't be trusted.
And Bower makes excuse after excuse. Johnson is a brilliant writer ... even though he is writing lies. He was a first class London mayor who achieved nothing.
Bower's own values shine through. He rarely mentions Corbyn, the former Labour Party leader, without describing him as "the anti-Semitic Marxist". He assumes the righteousness of capitalism, he dismisses anyone from the political Left or trade unionists. He writes about 'Britain' when he means 'England' - he's a Unionist who scarcely recognises the existence of Scotland, Ireland or Wales. And, of course, he's a Brexiteer ... so Johnson is the Messiah.
Apart from the first chapters, this is a tedious book - chapter after chapter of excusing the failings, chapter after chapter with no constructive analysis or ability to recognise Johnson for what he is, lazy, a man with no vision or insight, an English Nationalist, privileged, seeing himself as naturally part of England's social elite yet ... for all that, looked down on by them as an arriviste, someone who has only just recently bought himself into the club but who really doesn't have the pedigree.
There will be far better assessments of Johnson after he leaves Downing Street, and the best ones will offer no apologies or excuses.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

An ultimately disappointing book. I had high hopes after Bower’s past offerings. However, it turns out that Bower is a BoJo apologist. Where examples of Boris’s lack of fitness for public office are raised, it is only in order to be explained away, excused or blamed on others. The most egregious chapters relate to Brexit where Bower shows his strongly pro Brexit personal views. Not a book that is going to get re-read.

[David Margetts · Rating 2 out of 5]

Democracy, every now and then, and usually after a severe crisis, bowls a 'googley' and delivers a dangerous unprincipled 'populist' leader, the like of Trump, Bolsonarro and Boris. In the aftermath of the financial crisis and austerity measures, the situation was ideal for Boris, the charismatic, seductive, 'tell 'em what they want to hear' to emerge opportunistically onto the scene. His chequered background and behaviour, of ill discipline, duplicitousness, laziness, adulterousness and narcissism were 'pushed aside', enabling him to win against the awful Livingstone in London and use his Mayorship as an opportunity to promote himself and launch a career in politics. The same opportunism motivated him them to lead the Leave campaign, in spite of his lack of ideology, vision or belief in the project. His self serving, self centred approach to do all to 'help Boris' succour his ambition has led to unimaginable consequences to the people of the UK and the UK itself. He imagines himself as a Churchill, his idol, and for sure he matches many of Churchills blunders and gaffes, Gallipoli, Norway, Tonypandy, the Gold Standard, the Bengal famine etc etc etc, yet when a 'real crisis' came Churchill stepped up and delivered the necessary leadership and inspiration to everyone. Sadly in Boris' case, the Churchillian moment arrived, and he has through his weak attention to detail, autocratic leadership style, promotion of 'yes men', poor organisational skills, 'gung ho' approach, libertarianism, and his need to be loved and admired by all, allowed the UK to fall into it's greatest peace time crisis. 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. What is difficult to understand is how Bowers continually defends and excuses the man (who spends a lot of time in his house apparently), blaming everyone and everything other than Boris. Indeed the responsibility for Boris and his missteps, misspeaks, mistakes and all the other 'misses', is due apparently according to Bowers, to Stanley, his grandfather, his upbringing, his bosses and employers, the newspapers, the BBC, his advisors, the scientists, PHE, NHS, his weak civil servants, his weak ministers and some of the women in his life including Carrie....oh, and his baby had an impact too!!! It is incredible, yet, like Trump, Boris still has his loyal grassroots supporters who look the other way when he is making his errors in judgement.....and amazingly with white Tory women over 65, where he gets the best approval ratings....I am sure that lands well with Marina!! (they like a scoundrel and a bounder, more exciting than a Jeremy Hunt or a Merkel) So, the book ends prematurely, suggesting the jury is still out...and yet we have in the UK, a terrible Brexit deal which will have ramifications to jobs, prosperity and GDP for decades to come, the Union looks particularly unstable, we have one of the worst economic impacts, a 10% reduction in GDP, only bettered by Argentina and Greece, and now with over 110,000 deaths, one of the worst death rates.....surely any jury would convict the 'commander in chief' who has overseen this mess......but this is Boris....and with Boris anything might happen....he could resign abruptly, overcome with depression and self doubt....or he might soldier on and end up the hero, buoyed by a strong economic rebound and the victory of the vaccine!! It would certainly be difficult to predict the outcome.....for this unique 'gambler'....but for sure his presence on the scene over the past 10 years has changed the UK forever, and sadly at the moment it does not look too good. The book only gets 2 stars for me, as Bower seems seduced by Boris, and biased against experts, elites, Remainers, competitor journalists and the BBC, which is a shame, as with a little more objectivity and balance this would be a very good book.....he seems a little bit the 'populist' himself, no doubt selling many books to the Tory grassroots? (I am a Tory btw....but one who respected the statesmanship, integrity and convictions of Thatcher, Major, Heseltine, and Cameron.....Boris is entertaining and fun, but not a man to lead a country selflessly in a principled and honest manner!)

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was more than a biography of Boris Johnson; it served to show the often shambolic way we are governed and the constant jostling for position and favour of the civil servants and MPs.

His early life made Boris the man he is, a man who needs attention and constant confirmation that he is right. He is unable to deal with conflict consequently, issues are left unresolved.

He is a man who lies, denies and hides.

Who said we get the leaders we deserve?

[Mike Clarke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gammon and spin-age: I wanted to read a biog of our Lord and master that might uncover whether there is any substance beneath the contrived meejah image, but Tom Bower’s The Gambler isn’t it. Although there are artfully placed tales of unreliability, infidelity and double-crossing, mostly these are of the “ooh you are awful” variety that serve to propagate the myth, and conceal a slide into fan-wank. The clue is Bower’s use of the subject’s preferred mononym - even Charles Moore never refers to Mrs Thatcher as ‘Maggie’.
No one can fault Bower for research, and he interviews a lot of ex-girlfriends, ex-colleagues and ex-sidekicks - there are a lot of exes in the Johnson story - but most are of the “but that’s Boris!” variety and few offer worthwhile critique.

So is there any substance to the man Johnson? Not much, on the strength of this, despite or perhaps because of Bower’s obvious apologia. Keeping promises isn’t his strong suit, I can exclusively reveal, and there are going to be a lot of disappointed and possibly very angry people as these begin to pile up. A case in point is cop26: how can you show world leadership on climate change whilst simultaneously encouraging new coal mines, cutting overseas aid and passenger duty on domestic flights, and having no serious plan to insulate Britain’s stock of ageing, leaky houses? Equally the northern powerhouse and levelling up remain warm words but little has yet emerged as to how these will be delivered. That said, I have enjoyed some conservative commentators’ bewilderment at yesterday’s budget, but cakeism will inevitably turn into no treats for anyone unless he gets a grip. Meanwhile, there’ll be a phoney fishing war with France to distract us and the possible loss of the Northern Ireland settlement. A sort of village fete Bismarck impersonation. Sheesh.

Mildly enjoyable reading, Bower’s book lacks the analysis or insight I’d hoped for from the Kitty Kelley of the political and business worlds, which is what comes of writing about someone you fancy. There are numerous minor factual inaccuracies and the clunky sixth form style is faintly irritating - look I realise this comes from an obscure imprint somewhere in the muddy riverbed at Penguin Random, but couldn’t they afford a sub? Occasional snipes at Sonia Purnell, Boris’s best-known biographer, add to a slightly febrile feel to all this. That said, there are one or two amusing anecdotes revealing the depth of Johnson’s rivalry with David Cameron and his disdain for the acolyte George Osborne - such as his having initiated fisticuffs with each of them during the coalition years and their having to be pulled off by aides (fnarr fnarr), or Boris’s text on the morning of the 2015 general election: “good luck Dave and if you bog it up I’m standing by to fill the gap!” Ruled by overgrown public schoolboys….

[Paul Waring · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book - as one of the Penguin ‘orange spines’ I was expecting an even-handed and well-researched biography of our current (though not for much longer - he resigned the day after I bought the book) Prime Minister. Sadly, I was disappointed, and this book falls well short of the quality I’ve come to expect.

The failing of this book is the author’s endless insistence that Johnson is great and everyone else is wrong. I don’t know if he had a previous relationship with the subject (the acknowledgements suggests not), or fell under Johnson’s spell during the course of writing, but the outcome is a level of bias I would only expect from an autobiography.

At every stage, when something goes right it proves Johnson is great, and when something goes wrong (a frequent occurrence), it is the fault of someone else. Whilst there is no doubt that some of the people Johnson trusted let him down, many of the mistakes are clearly of his making, even if he refused to take responsibility (at a minimum, he hired most of his inner circle, and therefore is at least partly to blame for their incompetence). This gets worse as the book goes on, and culminates in the last few chapters where the author says of the Supreme Court judges ‘the bias was obvious’ (p.411) and Lady Hale is dismissed as ‘a family lawyer and administrator without any specialist knowledge of constitutional law’ (p.410) - an assertion that is hard to square with her 16 years of experience in the highest court in the land, which routinely hears cases around administrative and constitutional law.

The final two chapters, covering the pandemic, lambast most of the scientific community - with the exception of those whose views favoured the government - leaving the reader with the question of whether they should trust Boris Johnson (Classics (BA)) or Chris Whitty (Physiology (BA), medical science (DSc), Medicine (BM BCh), Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (DTM&H), Epidemiology (MSc), Medical law (LLM), practising consultant, Professor of Physic). When it comes to criticise one of the models produced for the pandemic, the author is unsure if it was written in C or Fortran (p.435), and then goes on to claim that it is an outdated language (the book was likely written on a computer running an operating system mostly written in C) and that ‘modern industry best practice’ would require a 15,000 line program to be broken up into 500 source files.

Overall, this is a disappointing read, and perhaps I should have paid more attention to the fact that all the quotes on the front are from right wing newspapers or commentators. If you happen to be a Johnson fan, this book will provide you with all the confirmation bias you need. If not, you’ll leave angry and frustrated.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing read. Bower is far from objective, he is an absolute conservative, convinced that people are unemployed because they don't want to work and shit like that.

Still he manages to write a balanced biography of Boris. He is absolutely unequivocal about Boris being only interested in becoming Prime Minister, lacking views, honesty or loyalty, least of all to his many wives. He tells people what he expects them to want to hear. People are forgiving towards him because they think he's authentic, being overweight, badly dressed and even worsely coiffed and adulterous. Not realising he is stealing their money in order to give it to his cronies (this last observation is mine, not Bowen's).

What really shocked me is how much effort he puts into getting power and maintaining it. That's how naive I am. What shocked me even more, by the way, is that Theresa May was even worse in this respect. And in her lack of ideas.

It is also interesting to read about the incompetence of the civil service, as Bower describes it. I fear he is right. And how the foreign office people do whatever they can to boycott and sabotage their boss, when Johnson is foreign secretary.

So, all in all, a revealing read about the mechanisms of power. I suppose Mark Rutte is not very different from Boris Johnson.

My main criticism is that the book is a bit long. It is very detailed. But it is well written.

[Stephen Higham · Rating 2 out of 5]

So if you were wondering, Johnson still comes off as a lascivious, self-serving creep even in a biography written by a mewling johnson sycophant. Bower takes pains to let you know he is super not party-biased, honest in his earlier Tony Blair book. Look at me I voted for new labour! But he’s lying. Every chance he gets he’s slipping in snide descriptions of Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs from declaring the women as ‘shrill’ to affording them the benefit of absolutely no doubt while brushing over Johnson’s own numerous sins and clearly idolising the man’s shameless steamrolling over every rule put in place to allow for a democratic dynamic in Westminster.

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. 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. I’d recommend not buying this and funnelling your money elsewhere. I bought it because Harry Lloyd reads the audiobook and I like his voice. Good reading Harry!

[Maarten Mathijssen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was very curious about this biography, I know that Boris Johnson evokes quite a few negative feelings in many. Personally I have always had a certain sympathy for the man, also found his books very worthwhile.
As a politician, reading this book has given me a little less sympathy for him. Opportunistic, very intuitive, ill-prepared, nepotism. It all comes along. Shocking is the description at the end of the Corona period, had Johnson himself not got Corona, he would have neglected it even longer. But what makes the book very interesting is the description of all political contradictions, not only between the parties but also within the party. Johnson's continuous struggle against established institutions such as the BBC and NHS are also very enlightening and make him more sympathetic to me. Often the political struggle is not so much one of ideologies but also of persons. Johnson versus Corbyn, with Corbyn consistently being called that Marxist Anti-Semite. If I had lived in the UK, my preference would have been Boris, despite his gigantic shortcomings.

[Graham Brownett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliantly written, meticulously researched and insightful, this book delves into Boris Johnson the son, the sibling, the husband, the adulterer, the father, the scholar, the intellectual as well as the politician. Tom Bower exposes the fragility of Johnson’s relationships, the lack of self confidence, his fear of conflict and his need for a female soulmate. A great read as you would expect from Tom Bower spoiled somewhat by the unnecessary final chapters on Covid.

[Jacob Stelling · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the whole I was very disappointed with this book. The first half was a fair assessment but the latter half, particularly the part after Johnson becomes PM, doesn’t even make any attempt to present a balanced or nuanced view. When discussing Covid in particular, the author seems to blame everyone but Johnson, and by the end the account simply turns into an incoherent rant about Covid rather than telling an accurate story about Johnson’s premiership. Hugely disappointed.

[Ros McFeely · Rating 4 out of 5]

His whole life has been a gamble and the wonder is how many supporters of the British Conservative party are willing to ignore his blatant disregard for the truth just to keep their party in power. The book ends as he unbelievably assumes the role of Prime Minister and as we know his luck continues despite all his stumbles. One can’t help thinking that his luck is about to run out - or has he another Houdini like trick up his sleeve?!

[Ian Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but overly long, or maybe Johnson just kept behaving the same way over and over again.
I became very irritated by the author repeatedly including his own views on what was happening in the country at the time, generally of the full of scroungers and Marxists type - gave up just before the Brexiteers brought May down

[Jamad · Rating 2 out of 5]

An okay two stars.

The Guardian review sums it up for me….yes he might be a womanizing liar but he did have a difficult childhood. I struggled with parts of the book, was the author expressing his opinion or was he writing what he thought Boris was thinking…if the latter, he needs a different approach.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...

“Stanley was exceptional. Dynamic, intelligent and intensely social, he had a wide range of friends in Oxford, had already travelled across the world and was sufficiently impressive to be identified as a recruit for MI6, the foreign intelligence service.”

“The year 1983 was a watershed in Britain – the eve of a revolution. In the wake of her victory in the Falklands the previous year, Margaret Thatcher won a landslide general election and the country was about to shake off the shackles of a socialist economy and the label as ‘the sick man of Europe’. The nightmare of the 1970s was over. 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. Ever since Harold Wilson imposed socialism on Britain after 1964, the country’s decline had been marked by a crippling brain drain. To escape confiscatory taxation and punitive state control, the most talented of Britain’s wealth creators had fled abroad to earn their fortunes. For Boris, bred as a natural Conservative by his father and Eton, Thatcher was the harbinger of a new dawn and new hope.”

“Among the targets in flames was a beloved family-run furniture store in Croydon which had survived the Blitz. Cowed, 6,000 police abandoned areas to the mob, doing nothing but watch rampant criminality. That night, Cameron and May headed back from their holidays to London. In Canada, Boris realised the severity of the situation and decided to return to Britain on his own. ‘I was watching the TV news in Calgary waiting for a plane,’ he wrote. ‘I felt a sickening sense of incredulity that this could really be happening in our city … I felt ashamed.’

“Education was troubling the government. Michael Gove, the education minister, was under attack from both teachers and parents for making the curriculum more demanding. Inadequate teachers and the extremist National Union of Teachers described Gove as ‘a demented Dalek on speed, who wants to exterminate everything good in education’. Some parents who feared that their children would fail exams disliked Gove’s demands for higher standards. His approval of excellence was popular among Conservatives who disliked the left’s advocacy of social engineering even at the cost of lower standards. In Boris’s opinion, Gove did not go far enough. The mayor wanted control over London’s schools and the children’s lunches. Gove refused and retained control to authorise more free schools and academies. To spite Boris, he also introduced his own healthy menu for school lunches.”

Hmm a minister for education introduces healthy lunches to spite the PM!

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was given this book for Christmas as I do like a political biography. I have not read this author before but he has written a lot of unofficial biographies where he can dig up the dirt on lots of famous people. This one is a detailed account of Boris Johnson's life, focusing on his career as a politician, as an MP, as Mayor of London, in the Brexit referendum, and ultimately as Prime Minister with even some bits covering the pandemic.

There is lots that is good about this book in my opinion. The author is unafraid of diving into the secrets of Boris Johnson's family background, his infidelities, and his character traits with lots of things I didn't previously know. 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.) which I have no idea how is able to achieve. Also the whole thing is very readable and written in an accessible journalistic style. What is also quite good is that the author isn't trying to do a hatchet job and both defends the Prime Minister on lots of issues on which other commentators have damned him but calls him out on other areas where he finds him wanting.

Dealing with a personality that divides opinion so much I guess it is inevitable that most people are going to have some issue with the positions that the author takes in certain areas. I didn't like the parts where he seemed to veer away from his facts to demonstrate his own prejudices (calling people snowflakes, dismissing Labour politicians as Marxists etc.) or where he excused false claims made by saying that they were OK because they illustrated a broader point he agreed with (around EU bureaucracy or immigration numbers). Also as both a civil servant and a former GLA employee I wasn't too keen on the bits where he blames officials (who can't speak for themselves) rather than politicians for particular failings but I may just be being over-sensitive there. 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.

Anyway, it is probably churlish to dwell on the bits I didn't like that much, and overall this is a thorough examination of the Prime Minister's life with a warts-and-all approach that seems to be well-evidenced as well as readable. Whether it really manages to pin down the Prime Minister's personality with all of the seeming contradictions I am not sure but as a run through of so much that happened during his time at City Hall, during the EU referendum, and as a Minister and then Prime Minister, including during the pandemic, I found it really interesting.

[Ken Sampson · Rating 4 out of 5]

[18 Nov 2021] Yet again reviews of any biography of a politician, such as Boris Johnson, will be heavily influenced by your own politics and in particular (in Britain at the moment) on whether you are a Leaver or Remainer (in the 2016 EU Referendum). It is incredibly informative, well written and a remarkable easy read. The Johnson family and in particular, Stanley, Boris's father, do not come out of it well. His childhood seems to have been one of brutal violence, paternal neglect and abandonment in public schools. If we are charitable we can say his childhood and early life followed a pre-determined middle-class script and he was (and is) a product of the system. You may not like 'the system' but we are all products of our upbringing whether we like it or not.

It seems, to me, a balanced account, not very flattering at times - his confabulation, his make it up as you go along style, his neediness, his inability to resist female attention, his disregard for loyalty, parenting, etc are laid bare. However the fact that he was hated by unreconciled 'Remainers' in his own party, across Parliament and the media and how they never missed an opportunity to discredit him or cause him difficulty was the under-current throughout and how the pandemic was exploited by them for their own ends.

Clearly an intelligent guy, but also a guy who polarises opinion. However as a study of the man, the circumstances and his influences the book is excellent, in particular the two chapters about Covid and the pandemic seem remarkably balance, well researched and informative.

[F. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This started off as a very promising read. Bower is a strong writer, and the first sentences captivated my attention and made it very hard to put down this book. I found it especially intriguing to read about the way Boris's tragic childhood had spurred his leadership ambitions, while at the same time, caused him to make some terrible decisions both politically and in his personal life. Seeing how he swayed the public on Brexit, a movement he himself didn't fully believe in, was also interesting.

But I was left disappointed around the last two chapters. Given that the book was written around the time when covid was still happening, the last part seemed incredibly rushed and verbose: Bower goes into depth about the origins, spread and impact of covid, but this takes up so much focus that the rich character analysis that took place in earlier chapters was lacking. It's a real shame because if it weren't for those last chapters, this would have been a much better biography. I think if Bower were to release a revised edition with a greater analysis on Boris's character, particularly during the fall and life after politics, it would be nicely rounded off.

[Chris Newens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started off very strong, then got gradually less engaging as Johnson actually ascended to power -- I found it hard to care about the ins and outs of London policy in particular.

I was, however, gripped by everything about the man's personal life. Boris Johnson would be a great fictional creation, both because of his many inconsistencies and the way in which individuals who know him seem to have a similar attitude toward the man as the general voting public -- see the willingness of women to forgive his multiple indiscretions and one day trust he might do better.

Clearly the book is biased in Johnson's favour, but to be honest I was glad of this. He still comes out looking like a complete charlatan, but a mostly likeable one. A less generous book may not capture the man's essence or explain his successes so well.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this, Tom Bower’s latest, on Audible whenever I found a spare moment. In Bower’s biographies he is never very forgiving of the main object, and there is a tendency for numerous others to either be the good and competent ones or merit an acerbic sideswipe all of their own. However, having read his book on Corbyn last year, Johnson comes out slightly better from the Bower treatment - especially over his time as mayor of London.

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.K. institutions.

[Ralph Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I suffered through the years and lost so many tears”. Tupac. Boris may be the most consequential politician of the twenty-first century embodying, oddly, an amalgamation of mistrust in politics, populism, half-truths, covid, and of course, Brexit. His pet-project, his love child, his offspring. Brexit may well be his greatest legacy. My own personal relationship with Boris is complicated. I loathed him to start with and then, faced with so much cynicism, came to love him and even identify with his struggle. When Boris was crucified in 2024, it was not just for misleading parliament but for the global crisis of covid, for Brexit, for Trump, even for the loss in faith of politics itself.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

An incredibly good account of being London mayor & Theresa May/early Brexit years. His relationship with his father and how it's formed him was new to me and interesting.

Bower doesn't hide from the lying, cheating and the long list of other negative aspects of his personality. sides of his personality. However, he is so clearly sympathetic to "Boris" that it does feel that this skews the overall balance of the book.

Lastly, the version I read was up-to-date as of June/July 2020, which feels like a lifetime ago.