Reviews and Comments

Via www.theguardian.com/books/2023/apr/07/killing-thatcher-by-rory-carroll-review-death-in-brighton and a since-lost toot...

This was the book, not the audio CD. Updating.

I've read and re-read this time and again. Speaks to me somehow, both angsty teenage me who read it for the first time around 1999, and current older and wiser me.

I'm finding the second half of the book to be much tougher going - I'm still very much engaged, but the consistent presence of the 45th administration is sometimes a bit to slog through. Still too soon to relive it, for me; But onwards I slog because the protagonist is still on the right side of history.

I read this years ago, but I need some hope and change in my life right now, so turning back to it.

This could be another cynical take on "investigating the investigators," but it also might be well considered and make good arguments. It's short, so I'll take the chance on it sometime and review accordingly.

To be honest, I thought at the time that Bercow handled himself as well, and impartially, as could be expected. I can't speak for any private conduct that didn't make it into Unspeakable, of course, which is why Whale's unauthorized biography is also on my to read list.

On my list to re-read at some point.

As any autobiographer might do, Bercow puts a positive spin on most things.

Unlike many autobiographers, Bercow is not afraid to admit when he has turned out to be painfully and brutally wrong - as with his early political alignment. I suspect the story of a friend with a helicopter when interviewing at multiple councils may be apocryphal but the generally refreshing honesty shines through.

Purnell writes both a good story and a historically accurate biography of Churchill's wife, who was largely responsible for his successes and indeed for much of the character of the PM that we knew, and know now with the benefit of hindsight.

Interesting and engaging, Clemetine is an excellent overview of Mrs. Churchill's life, path, and the ways she supported Winston through a wide variety of challenges. To some degree, parts of those challenges are rehashed and discussed, but that seems a reasonable thing to do for context rather than assuming that the reader has any knowledge of those aspects of the historical record.

While this is not always the case with non-fiction, I fully expect to make a second trip through this book and to get more out of it the second time.

I read this a little over two years ago, though my copy is long since lost to time and life circumstances. I'll likely be buying it again in the future to re-read.

Few people embody the Eighteenth Century quite as well as Mr. Rees-Mogg. Even fewer people are such exemplars of all that is wrong with moneyed classes who perceive that they are somehow both different from and benevolent to those "below them."

This is particularly interesting in the context of the money problems suffered within recent generations of Mr Rees-Mogg's own family. While some have borrowed an expression oft associated with Martin Shkreli to describe him, and some try their best to ignore him, he's a character worthy of study - even if only as a manual of how not to represent anyone except one's self in Parliament.

Interesting and accessible deconstruction of not only Theresa May, one of the UK's least friendly and approachable Prime Ministers in recent years; but of her doomed efforts to make Brexit happen.