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One Party After Another: The Disruptive Life of Nigel Farage
'Enormously readable...excellent' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times'A superb piece of thorough journalism' David Aaronovitch, The TimesNigel Farage is arguably one of the most influential British politicians of the 21st century. His campaign to take the UK out of the EU began as a minority and extreme point of view, but in June 2016 it became the official policy of the nation after a divisive referendum. In Michael Crick's brilliant new biography, One Party After Another, we find out how he did it, despite never once managing to get elected to Parliament.Farage left public school at the age of 16 to go and work in the City, but in the 1990s he was drawn into politics, joining UKIP. Ironically, it was the electoral system for the European Parliament that gave him access to a platform, and he was elected an MEP in 1999. His everyman persona, combined with a natural ability as a maverick and outspoken performer on TV, ensured that he garnered plenty of media attention. His message resonated in ways that rattled the major parties - especially the Conservatives - and suddenly the UK's membership of the EU was up for debate.Controversy was never far away, with accusations of racism against the party and various scandals. But, having helped secure the referendum, Farage was largely sidelined by the successful official Brexit campaign. When Parliament struggled to find a way to leave, Farage created the Brexit Party to ensure Britain did eventually leave the EU early in 2020. Crick's compelling new study takes the reader into the heart of Farage's story, assessing his methods, uncovering remarkable hidden details and builds to an unmissable portrait of one of the most controversial characters in modern British politics.
606 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 3, 2022
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About the author
Michael Crick
16 books19 followersMichael Crick (born 21 May 1958) is an English journalist, author and broadcaster.
Born in Northampton, he was educated at Manchester Grammar School and New College, Oxford, where he got a first class degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE). At Oxford he was editor of one of the student newspapers, Cherwell, founded the Oxford Handbook and the Oxbridge Careers Handbook, and was president of the Oxford Union.
He specialises in politics, and appeared as a regular reporter on BBC Two's Newsnight. In March 2007, he was appointed the programme's political editor.
In 2003, under heavy pressure from the preparation of the Hutton Report, it refused to show Crick's report for Newsnight into 'Betsygate', the alleged misuse of public funds by the private office of former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith and supposed payments to his wife Betsy for work she did not do. Crick referred the case to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Sir Philip Mawer and the Duncan Smiths were cleared of any impropriety.
In the 2005 general election, it was observed that the five most terrifying words in the political lexicon were "Michael Crick is in reception".
He has also reported for Channel 4 News and Panorama, and has appeared on Have I Got News For You. He is known as the unofficial biographer and nemesis of Jeffrey Archer. Margaret Crick, his estranged wife, published a biography of Archer's wife Mary in 2005.
A keen supporter of Manchester United, he has written several books on the team as well as his literary political works. In 1998-99 he was the organiser of the Shareholders United Against Murdoch campaign which successfully opposed BSkyB's proposed takeover of United. He later served as Vice-Chairman of Shareholders United.
He lives with his partner Lucy Hetherington and they have a baby girl called Isabel. He also has an older daughter from his previous marriage. On 24 February 2008, the News of the World newspaper reported that he had a six month affair with Jeanette Eccles a former BBC researcher. The paper ridiculed Crick for presenting himself as moral crusader, while his own behaviour had been unethical. He was also criticised for trying to prevent the publication of the story on the grounds of privacy, while he making a living from exposing the wrong doings of others.
Crick, a known Labour supporter, is known for his investigations of Conservative politicians and followed then Tory leader, Michael Howard around during the 2005 election campaign as part of his research for his biography of Howard, published the same year. Since then, Crick has investigated Conservative Party Chairman, Caroline Spelman for abuse of expenses.
Born in Northampton, he was educated at Manchester Grammar School and New College, Oxford, where he got a first class degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE). At Oxford he was editor of one of the student newspapers, Cherwell, founded the Oxford Handbook and the Oxbridge Careers Handbook, and was president of the Oxford Union.
He specialises in politics, and appeared as a regular reporter on BBC Two's Newsnight. In March 2007, he was appointed the programme's political editor.
In 2003, under heavy pressure from the preparation of the Hutton Report, it refused to show Crick's report for Newsnight into 'Betsygate', the alleged misuse of public funds by the private office of former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith and supposed payments to his wife Betsy for work she did not do. Crick referred the case to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Sir Philip Mawer and the Duncan Smiths were cleared of any impropriety.
In the 2005 general election, it was observed that the five most terrifying words in the political lexicon were "Michael Crick is in reception".
He has also reported for Channel 4 News and Panorama, and has appeared on Have I Got News For You. He is known as the unofficial biographer and nemesis of Jeffrey Archer. Margaret Crick, his estranged wife, published a biography of Archer's wife Mary in 2005.
A keen supporter of Manchester United, he has written several books on the team as well as his literary political works. In 1998-99 he was the organiser of the Shareholders United Against Murdoch campaign which successfully opposed BSkyB's proposed takeover of United. He later served as Vice-Chairman of Shareholders United.
He lives with his partner Lucy Hetherington and they have a baby girl called Isabel. He also has an older daughter from his previous marriage. On 24 February 2008, the News of the World newspaper reported that he had a six month affair with Jeanette Eccles a former BBC researcher. The paper ridiculed Crick for presenting himself as moral crusader, while his own behaviour had been unethical. He was also criticised for trying to prevent the publication of the story on the grounds of privacy, while he making a living from exposing the wrong doings of others.
Crick, a known Labour supporter, is known for his investigations of Conservative politicians and followed then Tory leader, Michael Howard around during the 2005 election campaign as part of his research for his biography of Howard, published the same year. Since then, Crick has investigated Conservative Party Chairman, Caroline Spelman for abuse of expenses.
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April 17, 2022
Nigel Farage and I have one thing in common. It’s nothing to do with politics. It’s Dulwich. He went to Dulwich College as a day pupil, taking the train in from his family home at Downe in Kent each day. My first experience of working in radio was at Dulwich Hospital with the team at Radio Dulwich and Saint Francis. Years later, as I was quietly slipping away from radio into retirement, Nigel Farage was just beginning his broadcasting, a short lived stint at the once again excellent LBC followed by his TV show at GB news.
Michael Crick, author of One Party After Another – The Disruptive Life of Nigel Farage, says broadcasting was always something Farage had dreamed of, and it’s easy to see why he’s taken to it like a duck to water. Opinionated, eloquent, probing, contrary, controversial, humorous, a good voice helped by his habitual smoking, an excellent debater – he’s made for the new breed of radio and tv station where shock jocking is now acceptable.
Whether you love him or hate him, this marmite figure is probably the most important politician, along with Thatcher, in the life time of Britons from the 1970’s till now. It’s in the final chapter of his excellent book that Michael Crick quotes the historian Matthew Goodwin who tweeted on the day in 2021 that Farage quit front line politics: “future historians will present Nigel Farage as one of the most influential and underestimated politicians of our time.” He is so right. Future historians I think because it will take time for Brexit to take its full good and bad effect on the future of the UK and because dislike, even hatred of him, has I think consumed so many people including historians that their view has masked their objective view of Farage’s influence.
He helped kill off the British National Party as a three time leader of UKIP to win the European elections in 2014 beating the Conservatives and Labour; he probably more than any other politician or group was responsible for getting David Cameron to grant the people an EU referendum and then for leading the no lobby to a Brexit victory. Then, when the Commons, the Lords and the establishment were trying to deny the will of the majority in that referendum result, he once again came to the fore by creating the Brexit Party and putting a large dose of salt on the Tories’ tail to get Brexit over the line.....and he wasn’t even an MP.
It is a colossal achievement, whatever your views of him.
Until I read One Party After Another, I always likened Nigel Farage to Mr Toad in The Wind In The Willows – full of himself, loud in dress which is similar and loud in voice, a hey look at me figure enjoying life’s excesses. Now, I still see Mr Toad in him, but I also see a deviousness, a lack of trust, a cold, calculating political operator, a disorganisation, an unfaithful womainser, a risk taker, an opportunist and a spot on political prophet. But the book also galvanises my views of his charm, his eloquence, his powerful speeches, and his excellent debating skills.
I was one of few people in the British media who months before the Brexit vote, knew which way it would go. Like Nigel Farage, who is three years younger than me, I’d grown up hearing and meeting constantly people grumbling about Europe, the EEC or the EU. Whether it was the fun stories of banning crooked carrots or the vast amount of money paid by the UK government to it or the growing reels of red tape regulations or the domination by Germany and France or the waste and lack of democratic accountability of the commissioners and the budget that was never audited – it was endless. I can recall the late John Hayes presenting phone in after phone in on BBC Essex in the 80’s and 90’s on people’s views on the EU – it was always a hot topic and nearly always the majority view seemed to be against it. It was changing as Brexit was happening – the young and the young middle aged, mainly through travel and the internet, were becoming appreciative of other European countries’ cultures and were pro EU, thinking you couldn’t have the former without membership of the latter. So I knew, as did Nigel Farage who actually thought on the night he had lost the Brexit vote, that it was going to be a close result. I’ll never forget the morning after at BBC Essex. For once, you could tell which way colleagues had voted. The place was like a morgue. Many staff looked and sounded absolutely miserable. A minority were cheerful. It was the opposite of what had happened in the real referendum. I realised before that how most of the media has misjudged the public mood and it was something Nigel Farage mentioned time again with his famous “You just don’t get it, do you!” catchphrase.
Michael Crick is such a fine, meticulous journalist. He’s virtually left no stone unturned in his biography of Nigel Farage. I can only find one episode where he’s still unable, despite ardent research, to find an answer. It’s in the chapter Friends of Vladimir towards the end of the book, after the Brexit vote when Farage became the first British politician to meet the new US President Trump. Crick writes how Trump had watched Brexit unfold and all of Farage’s speeches, and realised how influential he had become. Similar to Brexit, Trump did the unexpected – he won and “the world was wanting to ring him,” said Farage, “and we had an hour with him, a fascinating conversation. Trump kept saying Brexit was what began the whole thing” of him running for President. The answer Crick is after is why on 9 March 2017 at about 11 am, Nigel Farage paid a visit to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, the home of the Wikileaks founder and editor Julian Assange. The visit followed a publication of emails damaging to the Democrat Presidential candidate Hilary Clinton, which were then discovered to have been stolen by a “Russian intelligence service.” Crick writes that a journalist saw Farage go in to the embassy and another journalist saw him come out, and asked him if he’d been visiting Assange. Crick writes “Farage could not remember what he had been doing in the building.” Later on in the chapter, Crick writes of other journalists asking Farage what he was doing there, and how Farage shuts the conversation down with “for journalistic reasons. I will not say more than that.” As Crick writes “it all seems extraordinarily defensive. If the trip was purely innocent, why not just laugh it off...by being so angry, Farage made it look like he had something to hide.”
Michael Crick reveals conflicting claims about whether Nigel Farage showed racist tendencies at school. He finds former pupil colleagues, some of whom cite instances which they say prove that he was racist, but others say it was just typical school boy banter by Farage in his bid to be outrageous.
One thing Farage never achieved was becoming an MP, though he tried several times. Crick reveals that one of his early attempts was not to become a UKIP MP but a Conservative, while still a leading member of UKIP. It was 2004 and Crick tracks down Conservative Association members in the constituency of Tunbridge Wells who met with Farage to discuss the chances of him standing as Conservative candidate in the forthcoming General Election. But Crick reports there’s disagreement as to whether Farage approached the Conservatives, as they claim, or they approached him, as Farage claims.
The one person who did become a UKIP MP was Douglas Carswell, who stepped down as Conservative MP for Clacton and was re-elected as a UKIP MP in the same seat in a by election in 2014. I presented an election programme for BBC Essex from Clacton that night, but little did I know that Farage and Carswell didn’t get on. Michael Crick, who I remember seeing that night, reveals in his book how they bickered and disagreed with each other about UKIP’s direction and future policies. Just the morning after Carswell’s victory, he accused Farage of “not content with being the leader of a party that had just won its first seat in Parliament, he had in my view to make himself the absolute centre of attention,” by giving a magazine interview in which he said immigrants with HIV should be barred from entering Britain. The relationship appears from Crick’s description to have always been fractious and came to a head during the Brexit campaign when the race was on by various Brexit groups to become the one national designated campaign. Crick writes that it got to the point when they weren’t on speaking terms. There are allegations in the book that Carswell accessed data of UKIP voters and gave it to Conservative campaigners in the South Thanet by election in 2015, a seat Farage was campaigning for to try to join Carswell in the Commons. Carswell tells Crick the claim is “untrue.”
Nigel Farage’s run ins with various other politicians come across frequently in the book. The book is littered with characters who we would have seen joking and laughing with Nigel Farage, who Crick then tells us fell out with him including Neil Hamilton.
Crick also relates how Farage’s long suffering second wife, German Kirsten Mehr, who he married in 1999, puts up with his womanising for years, working for him in his political office and supporting him until 2017 when, following rumours of alleged relationships, she sees pictures of him with girlfriend Laure Ferrari in the United States. Crick writes, “the trip to Washington seems to have been the final straw” for her. She then reveals to reporters that she and Nigel had been living “separate lives for years.”
You learn so much about Farage in this book. As a young man, he’s left with one testicle because of cancer months after surviving an accident when he was hit by a Volkswagen Beetle, and there’s a detailed account of the plane crash that nearly killed him.
You learn about the other people behind the Brexit headlines including Brexit campaign financier Arron Banks who comes across as a laddish total anti establishment figure. We learn how he paid thousands of pounds for Farage to be driven around and stay in a central London residence.
It is a riveting account of how a chain smoker who survives on little sleep and often likes fishing at night off the coast of Kent, set about following his political belief to get out of the EU and took a majority with him. He disrupted the mighty political parties, it could be said he unseated two Prime Ministers, he led a political party which set new election records, and it was his actions that changed the relationship the UK has not just with the EU but with the rest of the world.
One of the most interesting observations made by Michael Crick is that Nigel Farage is a rare politician in that he can easily socialise, mix and keep the attention of a cross section of the British public. He’s undeterred by their views, class or colour.
What I still find incredible, and it’s something Michael Crick writes about, is why Farage was ignored and shunned both before and after Brexit by those in Government in Britain. The most powerful man in the world, the President of the USA, realised what he’d done and embraced him. In the new dawn in Britain he remained cold shouldered by the Prime Minister, the diplomatic service, the foreign office when I would have thought he could have helped reap the rewards of Brexit.
It’s a funny old game politics.
Michael Crick, author of One Party After Another – The Disruptive Life of Nigel Farage, says broadcasting was always something Farage had dreamed of, and it’s easy to see why he’s taken to it like a duck to water. Opinionated, eloquent, probing, contrary, controversial, humorous, a good voice helped by his habitual smoking, an excellent debater – he’s made for the new breed of radio and tv station where shock jocking is now acceptable.
Whether you love him or hate him, this marmite figure is probably the most important politician, along with Thatcher, in the life time of Britons from the 1970’s till now. It’s in the final chapter of his excellent book that Michael Crick quotes the historian Matthew Goodwin who tweeted on the day in 2021 that Farage quit front line politics: “future historians will present Nigel Farage as one of the most influential and underestimated politicians of our time.” He is so right. Future historians I think because it will take time for Brexit to take its full good and bad effect on the future of the UK and because dislike, even hatred of him, has I think consumed so many people including historians that their view has masked their objective view of Farage’s influence.
He helped kill off the British National Party as a three time leader of UKIP to win the European elections in 2014 beating the Conservatives and Labour; he probably more than any other politician or group was responsible for getting David Cameron to grant the people an EU referendum and then for leading the no lobby to a Brexit victory. Then, when the Commons, the Lords and the establishment were trying to deny the will of the majority in that referendum result, he once again came to the fore by creating the Brexit Party and putting a large dose of salt on the Tories’ tail to get Brexit over the line.....and he wasn’t even an MP.
It is a colossal achievement, whatever your views of him.
Until I read One Party After Another, I always likened Nigel Farage to Mr Toad in The Wind In The Willows – full of himself, loud in dress which is similar and loud in voice, a hey look at me figure enjoying life’s excesses. Now, I still see Mr Toad in him, but I also see a deviousness, a lack of trust, a cold, calculating political operator, a disorganisation, an unfaithful womainser, a risk taker, an opportunist and a spot on political prophet. But the book also galvanises my views of his charm, his eloquence, his powerful speeches, and his excellent debating skills.
I was one of few people in the British media who months before the Brexit vote, knew which way it would go. Like Nigel Farage, who is three years younger than me, I’d grown up hearing and meeting constantly people grumbling about Europe, the EEC or the EU. Whether it was the fun stories of banning crooked carrots or the vast amount of money paid by the UK government to it or the growing reels of red tape regulations or the domination by Germany and France or the waste and lack of democratic accountability of the commissioners and the budget that was never audited – it was endless. I can recall the late John Hayes presenting phone in after phone in on BBC Essex in the 80’s and 90’s on people’s views on the EU – it was always a hot topic and nearly always the majority view seemed to be against it. It was changing as Brexit was happening – the young and the young middle aged, mainly through travel and the internet, were becoming appreciative of other European countries’ cultures and were pro EU, thinking you couldn’t have the former without membership of the latter. So I knew, as did Nigel Farage who actually thought on the night he had lost the Brexit vote, that it was going to be a close result. I’ll never forget the morning after at BBC Essex. For once, you could tell which way colleagues had voted. The place was like a morgue. Many staff looked and sounded absolutely miserable. A minority were cheerful. It was the opposite of what had happened in the real referendum. I realised before that how most of the media has misjudged the public mood and it was something Nigel Farage mentioned time again with his famous “You just don’t get it, do you!” catchphrase.
Michael Crick is such a fine, meticulous journalist. He’s virtually left no stone unturned in his biography of Nigel Farage. I can only find one episode where he’s still unable, despite ardent research, to find an answer. It’s in the chapter Friends of Vladimir towards the end of the book, after the Brexit vote when Farage became the first British politician to meet the new US President Trump. Crick writes how Trump had watched Brexit unfold and all of Farage’s speeches, and realised how influential he had become. Similar to Brexit, Trump did the unexpected – he won and “the world was wanting to ring him,” said Farage, “and we had an hour with him, a fascinating conversation. Trump kept saying Brexit was what began the whole thing” of him running for President. The answer Crick is after is why on 9 March 2017 at about 11 am, Nigel Farage paid a visit to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, the home of the Wikileaks founder and editor Julian Assange. The visit followed a publication of emails damaging to the Democrat Presidential candidate Hilary Clinton, which were then discovered to have been stolen by a “Russian intelligence service.” Crick writes that a journalist saw Farage go in to the embassy and another journalist saw him come out, and asked him if he’d been visiting Assange. Crick writes “Farage could not remember what he had been doing in the building.” Later on in the chapter, Crick writes of other journalists asking Farage what he was doing there, and how Farage shuts the conversation down with “for journalistic reasons. I will not say more than that.” As Crick writes “it all seems extraordinarily defensive. If the trip was purely innocent, why not just laugh it off...by being so angry, Farage made it look like he had something to hide.”
Michael Crick reveals conflicting claims about whether Nigel Farage showed racist tendencies at school. He finds former pupil colleagues, some of whom cite instances which they say prove that he was racist, but others say it was just typical school boy banter by Farage in his bid to be outrageous.
One thing Farage never achieved was becoming an MP, though he tried several times. Crick reveals that one of his early attempts was not to become a UKIP MP but a Conservative, while still a leading member of UKIP. It was 2004 and Crick tracks down Conservative Association members in the constituency of Tunbridge Wells who met with Farage to discuss the chances of him standing as Conservative candidate in the forthcoming General Election. But Crick reports there’s disagreement as to whether Farage approached the Conservatives, as they claim, or they approached him, as Farage claims.
The one person who did become a UKIP MP was Douglas Carswell, who stepped down as Conservative MP for Clacton and was re-elected as a UKIP MP in the same seat in a by election in 2014. I presented an election programme for BBC Essex from Clacton that night, but little did I know that Farage and Carswell didn’t get on. Michael Crick, who I remember seeing that night, reveals in his book how they bickered and disagreed with each other about UKIP’s direction and future policies. Just the morning after Carswell’s victory, he accused Farage of “not content with being the leader of a party that had just won its first seat in Parliament, he had in my view to make himself the absolute centre of attention,” by giving a magazine interview in which he said immigrants with HIV should be barred from entering Britain. The relationship appears from Crick’s description to have always been fractious and came to a head during the Brexit campaign when the race was on by various Brexit groups to become the one national designated campaign. Crick writes that it got to the point when they weren’t on speaking terms. There are allegations in the book that Carswell accessed data of UKIP voters and gave it to Conservative campaigners in the South Thanet by election in 2015, a seat Farage was campaigning for to try to join Carswell in the Commons. Carswell tells Crick the claim is “untrue.”
Nigel Farage’s run ins with various other politicians come across frequently in the book. The book is littered with characters who we would have seen joking and laughing with Nigel Farage, who Crick then tells us fell out with him including Neil Hamilton.
Crick also relates how Farage’s long suffering second wife, German Kirsten Mehr, who he married in 1999, puts up with his womanising for years, working for him in his political office and supporting him until 2017 when, following rumours of alleged relationships, she sees pictures of him with girlfriend Laure Ferrari in the United States. Crick writes, “the trip to Washington seems to have been the final straw” for her. She then reveals to reporters that she and Nigel had been living “separate lives for years.”
You learn so much about Farage in this book. As a young man, he’s left with one testicle because of cancer months after surviving an accident when he was hit by a Volkswagen Beetle, and there’s a detailed account of the plane crash that nearly killed him.
You learn about the other people behind the Brexit headlines including Brexit campaign financier Arron Banks who comes across as a laddish total anti establishment figure. We learn how he paid thousands of pounds for Farage to be driven around and stay in a central London residence.
It is a riveting account of how a chain smoker who survives on little sleep and often likes fishing at night off the coast of Kent, set about following his political belief to get out of the EU and took a majority with him. He disrupted the mighty political parties, it could be said he unseated two Prime Ministers, he led a political party which set new election records, and it was his actions that changed the relationship the UK has not just with the EU but with the rest of the world.
One of the most interesting observations made by Michael Crick is that Nigel Farage is a rare politician in that he can easily socialise, mix and keep the attention of a cross section of the British public. He’s undeterred by their views, class or colour.
What I still find incredible, and it’s something Michael Crick writes about, is why Farage was ignored and shunned both before and after Brexit by those in Government in Britain. The most powerful man in the world, the President of the USA, realised what he’d done and embraced him. In the new dawn in Britain he remained cold shouldered by the Prime Minister, the diplomatic service, the foreign office when I would have thought he could have helped reap the rewards of Brexit.
It’s a funny old game politics.
August 30, 2022
Most British people love or hate Nigel Farage. If you love him, then this book will contain some uncomfortable truths. If you hate him, the book also contains some uncomfortable truths. In short, this is a fair biography of a highly divisive figure.
Nigel's fans won’t (or shouldn’t) enjoy reading about his ruthless purging of all opposition in UKIP, his hypocritical use of EU money, his broken promises and shabby treatment of women. His haters won't like the way he slips out of their grasp instead of slotting into the easy caricature they have made for him. He hates Europeans? His second wife was German while his current (at the time of writing) girlfriend is French. Apparently he even gets on well with Jean-Claude Junker. And for all his strong words about illegal immigration, in November 2020 he was personally involved in saving two drowning Malian migrants and bringing them safely to shore in Britain. As for accusations of racism, he proudly (although egotistically) boasted:
Most importantly, there is a flowing narrative written in a highly readable style, which presents a picture of a fascinating character who has possibly been the most successful politician in post-war Britain. With the departure from the EU in its early days, it’s impossible to say whether his legacy will be one of triumph or disaster, but this book gives all sides their say and presents a compelling story.
Nigel's fans won’t (or shouldn’t) enjoy reading about his ruthless purging of all opposition in UKIP, his hypocritical use of EU money, his broken promises and shabby treatment of women. His haters won't like the way he slips out of their grasp instead of slotting into the easy caricature they have made for him. He hates Europeans? His second wife was German while his current (at the time of writing) girlfriend is French. Apparently he even gets on well with Jean-Claude Junker. And for all his strong words about illegal immigration, in November 2020 he was personally involved in saving two drowning Malian migrants and bringing them safely to shore in Britain. As for accusations of racism, he proudly (although egotistically) boasted:
“I almost single-handedly destroyed the Far Right in British politics. … If I hadn't been around and done what I'd done, that strain of opinion would have been represented by Nick Griffin and the BNP and would genuinely have been motivated by hate.”I don't read many political biographies, but I read this one because I got a free copy from the author, who had used a photo I took of Farage at school. The account of his school years, quoting people I knew well (and in some cases still know) – many of whom had no reason to love him –accurately reflects him as I remember him. This makes the subsequent narrative all the more plausible, and the book is full of interviews with friends and foes alike.
Most importantly, there is a flowing narrative written in a highly readable style, which presents a picture of a fascinating character who has possibly been the most successful politician in post-war Britain. With the departure from the EU in its early days, it’s impossible to say whether his legacy will be one of triumph or disaster, but this book gives all sides their say and presents a compelling story.
January 7, 2023
A fair and readable biography, but lacks deep insight.
Very good on the nitty gritty of events throughout Farage's tumultuous career, with blow-by-blow accounts of the numerous internal battles he fought within the Brexit Party and, especially, UKIP. But this sometimes makes it feel like a UKIP history rather than a biography of an individual, and the big picture is often ignored.
There's too much narrative and not enough explanation - why has Farage acted in the ways that he has? What motivates him? What are his actual political beliefs? Why did he come to loathe the EU so much? Why did he ignore many other important political issues?
You never really get an answer to these questions, and you don't get any real sense of the distinctive role played by Farage in some crucial events - for example, in bringing about David Cameron's referendum pledge.
It's a good read, with Farage's incessant ability to make internal enemies coming to the fore - but there's room for another biographer to explore his life in more detail.
Very good on the nitty gritty of events throughout Farage's tumultuous career, with blow-by-blow accounts of the numerous internal battles he fought within the Brexit Party and, especially, UKIP. But this sometimes makes it feel like a UKIP history rather than a biography of an individual, and the big picture is often ignored.
There's too much narrative and not enough explanation - why has Farage acted in the ways that he has? What motivates him? What are his actual political beliefs? Why did he come to loathe the EU so much? Why did he ignore many other important political issues?
You never really get an answer to these questions, and you don't get any real sense of the distinctive role played by Farage in some crucial events - for example, in bringing about David Cameron's referendum pledge.
It's a good read, with Farage's incessant ability to make internal enemies coming to the fore - but there's room for another biographer to explore his life in more detail.
September 29, 2024
A fascinating insight into Nigel Farage, one of British politics’ most disruptive characters and arguably the reason we are no longer in the EU. This book serves both as a biography of Farage and the Brexit movement as a whole, showing how one of our politics’ biggest upsets was carried out.
This was an excellent political biography, I can’t fault the author on that. However, maybe my leftist beliefs and horror at a lot of what Farage stands for are coming through here, but I did feel this took a rather varnished look at his legacy.
I felt when many of Farage’s more extreme quotes or actions were brought up, they weren’t called out or were simply brushed off as just ‘Farage being Farage’. Perhaps this biography aimed to present the facts without judgement, but the left-winger in me cringed at times!
This was an excellent political biography, I can’t fault the author on that. However, maybe my leftist beliefs and horror at a lot of what Farage stands for are coming through here, but I did feel this took a rather varnished look at his legacy.
I felt when many of Farage’s more extreme quotes or actions were brought up, they weren’t called out or were simply brushed off as just ‘Farage being Farage’. Perhaps this biography aimed to present the facts without judgement, but the left-winger in me cringed at times!
February 11, 2022
A book of the year contender, and it's only February.
June 3, 2024
This is a very interesting book and well written, but a bit of a doorstep. I think you would need to be very interested in Mr Farage to plough through it all. I must confess that I skipped a few bits.
I thought that the author went into great detail about the internal politics of UKIP - too much detail for my taste. We were hearing a lot about who did what and who said what when and its impact on UKIP, but very often this was not directly relevant to Mr Farage. Likewise the Brexit referendum campaign is covered in great detail, even when not really relevant to Mr Farage.
But I quibble. I knew how weighty the book was when i bought it. So my fault really.
As political books go, this is fairly lightweight in tone - if long.
So if you want to know everything there is to know about Nigel Farage [except his shoe size] this is the book for you.
I thought that the author went into great detail about the internal politics of UKIP - too much detail for my taste. We were hearing a lot about who did what and who said what when and its impact on UKIP, but very often this was not directly relevant to Mr Farage. Likewise the Brexit referendum campaign is covered in great detail, even when not really relevant to Mr Farage.
But I quibble. I knew how weighty the book was when i bought it. So my fault really.
As political books go, this is fairly lightweight in tone - if long.
So if you want to know everything there is to know about Nigel Farage [except his shoe size] this is the book for you.
March 25, 2022
Excellent and fair-minded biography of a marmite figure.
February 13, 2022
I was aware of Michael Crick as a television reporter. He always seemed a bit of a nuisance on screen, sometimes irritatingly so. However, on the basis of this book I now see him as a first class journalist and biographer. This is a warts and all portrayal of Farage. It doesn’t hide his boozy, womanising side and his many flirtations with obvious racists. It also points to his remarkable achievements in leading two different political parties to winning positions in European elections. Whilst keen to be the centre of attention, he managed to keep a fractious and very often ramshackle outfit on the road. He is also quick on his feet, an effective debater and capable of politically expedient sleights of hand. Yet is fairly regularly thwarted by the even more deviously expedient Tories.
The biography is a remarkably fair analysis, quite rare in these post Brexit times. It not loaded one way or the other, it merely explains events (often from multiple points of view). One hopes that more political writing in this often bitterly partisan era will be of a similarly high standard.
The biography is a remarkably fair analysis, quite rare in these post Brexit times. It not loaded one way or the other, it merely explains events (often from multiple points of view). One hopes that more political writing in this often bitterly partisan era will be of a similarly high standard.
May 19, 2022
Obviously the man himself would get 0 stars but for some reason I found this book fascinating...maybe because everyone involved seemed to absolutely hate each other and I love political dramas and falling out. It is very comprehensive (I had the audiobook which was about 21 hours) and if you are interested in everything leading up to Brexit it is definitely worth reading.
February 21, 2022
Putting aside one’s feelings towards Nigel Farage, this is an excellently researched and written book. The prose flows off the pages and is very hard to put down.
July 20, 2024
This tour de force biography of one of Britain’s most popular and controversial politicians, Nigel Farage, takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of his life from his youth growing up in Kent and attending the fee-paying Dulwich College, through his years as a city trader in metals and founding member of UKIP, up to the roles he played leading that party and helping to take the UK out of the EU.
There is certainly so much to cover in this book as Farage’s life has been eventful, to say the least. Whether it’s the three near-death experiences he has had - surviving being hit by a car, testicular cancer, and a plane crash - or his campaigns and skirmishes in the media spotlight, there is never a dull moment and the biography captures the drama well.
With the author being the Channel 4 journalist Michael Crick, whose career was notable for him being a persistent and critical reporter who would not let a good story go, or let politicians get away with nonsense, you get a relatively objective account of Farage’s life which could easily have gone the way of being a shameless plug for the now-Reform UK leader or instead a diatribe against his anti-EU and immigration stances.
Crick managed a delicate balancing act by revealing the less-flattering details of Farage’s private and political lives and giving a voice to people who have been on the receiving end of his ruthless one-man-band style leadership—the “many enemies and casualties among his party colleagues” especially. At the same time, Crick can’t hide his own admiration for Farage’s incredible luck and ghoulish inability to be vanquished, his “all-round skills as a political communicator” and being a “master of the dark arts”. The result is a complex portrait of one of Britain’s most significant political figures of the past fifty years, who Crick puts in the same bracket as Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, Alex Salmond, and Boris Johnson.
To put it crudely, to some people in liberal political circles Farage is like an aggressive poo that won’t be flushed away, but there is a lot to be learned about his tenacity and staying power. He has reinvented himself so many times - trader, campaigner, politician, journalist - and there are not many politicians who have the charisma that he has, being able to lead rallies of thousands and garner millions of votes whatever party he leads (we are now onto the third one, in Reform UK, after UKIP and the Brexit Party). He has that unique ability to read the public’s pulse and speak directly to them. Whether you like him or loathe him, whether you voted to Remain in or Leave the EU in the 2016 referendum, there is no denying Farage is one of the titans of our politics and is a worthy subject for a biography such as this, which anyone interested in UK politics would enjoy.
It is also the case that with Reform UK having risen from the ashes of the Brexit Party and having just had five MPs elected to parliament - more than UKIP or the Brexit Party ever managed and including Farage as representative for the Essex constituency of Clacton - there are signs that the story of Farage’s career is not yet finished and there is much more to come. I wonder if we will be getting a sequel to this 2022 book, published when it was believed Farage’s career had come to an end, and if we do, I would love for it to be written by Crick once again.
There is certainly so much to cover in this book as Farage’s life has been eventful, to say the least. Whether it’s the three near-death experiences he has had - surviving being hit by a car, testicular cancer, and a plane crash - or his campaigns and skirmishes in the media spotlight, there is never a dull moment and the biography captures the drama well.
With the author being the Channel 4 journalist Michael Crick, whose career was notable for him being a persistent and critical reporter who would not let a good story go, or let politicians get away with nonsense, you get a relatively objective account of Farage’s life which could easily have gone the way of being a shameless plug for the now-Reform UK leader or instead a diatribe against his anti-EU and immigration stances.
Crick managed a delicate balancing act by revealing the less-flattering details of Farage’s private and political lives and giving a voice to people who have been on the receiving end of his ruthless one-man-band style leadership—the “many enemies and casualties among his party colleagues” especially. At the same time, Crick can’t hide his own admiration for Farage’s incredible luck and ghoulish inability to be vanquished, his “all-round skills as a political communicator” and being a “master of the dark arts”. The result is a complex portrait of one of Britain’s most significant political figures of the past fifty years, who Crick puts in the same bracket as Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, Alex Salmond, and Boris Johnson.
To put it crudely, to some people in liberal political circles Farage is like an aggressive poo that won’t be flushed away, but there is a lot to be learned about his tenacity and staying power. He has reinvented himself so many times - trader, campaigner, politician, journalist - and there are not many politicians who have the charisma that he has, being able to lead rallies of thousands and garner millions of votes whatever party he leads (we are now onto the third one, in Reform UK, after UKIP and the Brexit Party). He has that unique ability to read the public’s pulse and speak directly to them. Whether you like him or loathe him, whether you voted to Remain in or Leave the EU in the 2016 referendum, there is no denying Farage is one of the titans of our politics and is a worthy subject for a biography such as this, which anyone interested in UK politics would enjoy.
It is also the case that with Reform UK having risen from the ashes of the Brexit Party and having just had five MPs elected to parliament - more than UKIP or the Brexit Party ever managed and including Farage as representative for the Essex constituency of Clacton - there are signs that the story of Farage’s career is not yet finished and there is much more to come. I wonder if we will be getting a sequel to this 2022 book, published when it was believed Farage’s career had come to an end, and if we do, I would love for it to be written by Crick once again.
August 30, 2023
This is an excellent biography of Nigel Farage that’s easy to read and gives a great account of the politics in Britain in the first two decades of the 21st Century. As far as I am concerned, Farage is possibly the most influential political figure of my lifetime, with the exception of Thatcher (although I find myself even debating that.) This book seems to take a similar view and builds serious arguments to detail why that would be a credible position to take.
The one downside of the book is that it often gets tangled up in political analysis that would only interest policy wonks and nerds. I often got lost in the tales of political alliances, rivalries and embryonic parties that Farage was involved with or challenged by in both Europe and the UK. It’s sometimes hard to figure who and what were the real challenges that he overcame on the way to realising his dream of leaving the EU. I suppose that is politics though, and books about the Cameron years, or the Corbyn years, or in fact any of the political years would have a similar story to tell. It’s not the big confrontations with the opposition that matter, it’s the internal squabbling, the backstabbing, the compromises that are agreed that often decide how events turn out, or at least it is in Westminster, Brussels and Washington. it’s this system that breeds frustration for the majority of the public who’d rather have things much more clear cut, so that they can get on with their lives with a minimum of interference.
Farage is a character and this book gives quite a full portrayal of the man. He’s cut from the same cloth as Boris Johnson, Trump, Alex Salmond and many other populist figures who revel in the limelight and almost can’t bear to be out of it. They’re a bit chaotic but always interesting and undeniably seem to have a verve for life that makes your own seem rather dull in comparison. Saying that, I still did wonder about the Nigel Farage that we don’t really see. As the song asks, “Where do you go to my lovely, when you’re alone in your bed?” Who are the “real” friends and companions that give him solace? Has he found any? When the spotlight switches off, is he lost in the dark? I reached the conclusion that Farage doesn’t really have another life outside of the public one - he is what he seems to be. I could say the same about Thatcher and Trump or Blair. You could always imagine David Cameron or John Major finishing at 5pm on a Friday and going home to their “real” life. That doesn’t apply to Farage, for better or worse.
This is definitely an interesting, entertaining and educational book and a tonic to many other political tomes that seem only to be interested in the Establishment agreed “heavy hitters” of the political world. It finishes by concluding that it’s still too early to tell what Farage has really achieved in his career because the ramifications are still going to be felt decades from now. I can’t disagree with that.
The one downside of the book is that it often gets tangled up in political analysis that would only interest policy wonks and nerds. I often got lost in the tales of political alliances, rivalries and embryonic parties that Farage was involved with or challenged by in both Europe and the UK. It’s sometimes hard to figure who and what were the real challenges that he overcame on the way to realising his dream of leaving the EU. I suppose that is politics though, and books about the Cameron years, or the Corbyn years, or in fact any of the political years would have a similar story to tell. It’s not the big confrontations with the opposition that matter, it’s the internal squabbling, the backstabbing, the compromises that are agreed that often decide how events turn out, or at least it is in Westminster, Brussels and Washington. it’s this system that breeds frustration for the majority of the public who’d rather have things much more clear cut, so that they can get on with their lives with a minimum of interference.
Farage is a character and this book gives quite a full portrayal of the man. He’s cut from the same cloth as Boris Johnson, Trump, Alex Salmond and many other populist figures who revel in the limelight and almost can’t bear to be out of it. They’re a bit chaotic but always interesting and undeniably seem to have a verve for life that makes your own seem rather dull in comparison. Saying that, I still did wonder about the Nigel Farage that we don’t really see. As the song asks, “Where do you go to my lovely, when you’re alone in your bed?” Who are the “real” friends and companions that give him solace? Has he found any? When the spotlight switches off, is he lost in the dark? I reached the conclusion that Farage doesn’t really have another life outside of the public one - he is what he seems to be. I could say the same about Thatcher and Trump or Blair. You could always imagine David Cameron or John Major finishing at 5pm on a Friday and going home to their “real” life. That doesn’t apply to Farage, for better or worse.
This is definitely an interesting, entertaining and educational book and a tonic to many other political tomes that seem only to be interested in the Establishment agreed “heavy hitters” of the political world. It finishes by concluding that it’s still too early to tell what Farage has really achieved in his career because the ramifications are still going to be felt decades from now. I can’t disagree with that.
April 6, 2023
A really important book about one of the most influential political figures in British history in the last half century.
Crick does an excellent at trying to be as fair and factual as possible about a deeply divisive politician. He acknowledges the brilliance of Farage as a communicator and his political instincts as as well as his deep unpleasantness, guile and ruthlessness.
All the way through the book - which at 550 pages - I felt we are living on the wrong side of the mirror and how unlikely Brexit was. Firstly Farage himself almost dies not once but three times. Secondly the PR system that allows UKIP to break through at the EU elections creeps through on a promise that Blair didn't need to keep to Paddy Ashdown but feels obliged because he respects him. And UKIP could have been eaten up by the Referendum Party if James Goldsmith hadn't died almost immediately after their victory.
But there are many other extraordinary turns along the way such as the virtual collapse of BNP, quite probably due to the success of UKIP. It is also a reminder of how turbulent politics has been especially in the last ten years and he degree to which Farage caused that but certainly exploited it brilliantly.
It rather ends on a whimper with Farage as a much less relevant figure as a shock jock - but will he come back to haunt our dreams as he has so many times before?
Crick does an excellent at trying to be as fair and factual as possible about a deeply divisive politician. He acknowledges the brilliance of Farage as a communicator and his political instincts as as well as his deep unpleasantness, guile and ruthlessness.
All the way through the book - which at 550 pages - I felt we are living on the wrong side of the mirror and how unlikely Brexit was. Firstly Farage himself almost dies not once but three times. Secondly the PR system that allows UKIP to break through at the EU elections creeps through on a promise that Blair didn't need to keep to Paddy Ashdown but feels obliged because he respects him. And UKIP could have been eaten up by the Referendum Party if James Goldsmith hadn't died almost immediately after their victory.
But there are many other extraordinary turns along the way such as the virtual collapse of BNP, quite probably due to the success of UKIP. It is also a reminder of how turbulent politics has been especially in the last ten years and he degree to which Farage caused that but certainly exploited it brilliantly.
It rather ends on a whimper with Farage as a much less relevant figure as a shock jock - but will he come back to haunt our dreams as he has so many times before?
February 2, 2023
While I don't claim to be a fan of Nigel Farage, I have to admit an admiration for the way he established the UK Independence Party over many years to become an influential political force. Michael Crick takes us on a journey of Farage's life from boyhood to being a stock market trader and then launching himself into politics. Regarded as a minnow at first, over the years he maneuvered and gradually outwitted even the most accomplished politicians, making many enemies on the way, who accused him of continually pushing other potentially rising star UKIP members aside to remain the organisation's leading light. The book also focuses on his love life dalliances and ensuing relationship difficulties they caused, as well as risks to his reputation. Crick was a political reporter terrier, pursuing over many years the wheeling and dealing of this party, which eventually sent the established political parties reeling, and became the ultimate power in tipping Britain's exit from the European Union. Whether love or hate Farage, this is the fascinating story of a momentus time in a nation's history.
January 25, 2023
Very much a journalistic book concentrating very much on the here and now - there was very little assessment of the wider context of the time, which seemed pretty important particularly at the end of the story in the period between the referendum and actually leaving. This period seemed under developed in the narrative. It seemed sometimes more like gossip about Farage.
The earlier parts of the book were more interesting, although there seems little to explain why his hatred of the EU reached such heights. It is easy forget how this great change in British politics was so heavily influenced by Farage leading a motley crew of amateurs usually with various reasons why they shouldn't be anywhere near politics. Some of the discussions about the details of UKIP and then the Brexit Party present a picture that could have come from Monty Python.
An engaging read, which will add to deeper accounts in due course.
The earlier parts of the book were more interesting, although there seems little to explain why his hatred of the EU reached such heights. It is easy forget how this great change in British politics was so heavily influenced by Farage leading a motley crew of amateurs usually with various reasons why they shouldn't be anywhere near politics. Some of the discussions about the details of UKIP and then the Brexit Party present a picture that could have come from Monty Python.
An engaging read, which will add to deeper accounts in due course.
March 17, 2022
5 stars for the book and not the man. Exceptionally well-written and engaging biography of what seems like a very determined and clever yet not very nice man.
Underestimated, self-centred, brilliantly talented, serial adulterer are all valid descriptions of what seemed like quite a sad and disappointed man. This despite the undoubted huge influence he had in shaping British politics.
Crick (as many journalist authors seem able to do) is a good story-teller and the book quickly becomes hard to put down.
Thoroughly recommend this book to anyone interested in politics regardless of your view of the man.
Underestimated, self-centred, brilliantly talented, serial adulterer are all valid descriptions of what seemed like quite a sad and disappointed man. This despite the undoubted huge influence he had in shaping British politics.
Crick (as many journalist authors seem able to do) is a good story-teller and the book quickly becomes hard to put down.
Thoroughly recommend this book to anyone interested in politics regardless of your view of the man.
January 21, 2024
A very interesting read. I've never taken much interest in Farage before. This book paints a fascinating picture of a complex, multifaceted and highly influential character. It's also a very good slice of recent political history. I felt it lost a little pep towards the end but perhaps that reflected Farage's role on Brexit dwindling post referendum. I'll add I was sorry to see such an established journalist peddling gender ideology (refers to Nikki Sinclair as a woman) - it makes you question their commitment to truth....you had ONE JOB journos! One job! Crick is of course far from alone in peddling this stuff. But I'd hope for better.
December 28, 2022
One thing still puzzles me having followed this guy over the years. Why did he so tamely agree not to run any candidates in Tory seats in 2019. He did not get anything in return, not a cabinet post, not even a peerage- and Johnson has debased those to a level where Lord Gnome is a pillar of respectability. Ironically, if he had done the same in Labour seats the Tories would have had an extra 15 seats. So, this supposedly arch schemer, political mastermind even, blinked first- duped by the egregious Bojo. And for what, sure he can form a new "new party". maybe even get elected at the 9th attempt. Donald Trump he ain't....
August 8, 2022
This book reads more like a thriller than a biography. It is my first by Michael Crick. He is a good writer. I am not a Farage fan but no one can dispute his impact on life in the United Kingdom and beyond.
February 13, 2023
Poorly written, doesn't flow, spelling mistakes and based mainly on hearsay. Surprised that the author has shown a desire to shut down the news channel that Farage has a top spot on yet wants to cash in on his life?
December 13, 2025
Not a Farage fan but this is definitely an interesting book. What surprised me is that now a lot of allegations about him being a racist at school have come out but they are all in this book February 2022 book.
Well worth a read if you are interested in UK politics.
Well worth a read if you are interested in UK politics.
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June 1, 2022Reviewed in the June 2022 issue of the Socialist Standard:
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November 4, 2022Reviewed in the June 2022 issue of the Socialist Standard:
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February 19, 2023
An interesting but depressing read. Filled in a few lacunas in my knowledge of UK politics in the 1990s
June 2, 2023
Promising premise but too partisan to work as a proper political biography.
January 22, 2024
Well researched and written. The subject is just not a very nice person and has inflicted severe damage on the country he claims to love.
June 16, 2024
Good fun, lots of colour, fair, and at its heart a rounded picture of a man with a complex personality. And it's suddenly become highly relevant to current politics - yet again!
December 21, 2024
Know your enemy
September 18, 2025
Such an eye opener
October 19, 2025
Listened as an audiobook. Comprehensive biography. Not sure why the narrator tried their hand at impressions though.
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