Justin Cartwright: ‘Blair makes it clear that he found Brown dull and slow’

Justin Cartwright: ‘Blair makes it clear that he found Brown dull and slow’

The novelist gives his verdict on Tony Blair's memoirTony Blair's account of his political life is apparently the fastest selling book Waterstone's has ever had. This may in part be because it is the only multiple bookshop still standing, and beca...
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Richard Eyre: ‘Blair had a very considerable skill as a performer’

2010/09/04
By Richard Eyre
Richard Eyre: ‘Blair had a very considerable skill as a performer’

The film and theatre director gives his verdict on Tony Blair's memoirWhen I talked to the sixth form at Fettes college in 1970 about The Crucible, I was unaware that a future prime minister was in the class. Tony Blair and his classmates had been to s...
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Christopher Hitchens: ‘The righteous will evidently never tire of the pelting and taunting of Tony Blair’

2010/09/04
By Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens: ‘The righteous will evidently never tire of the pelting and taunting of Tony Blair’

The author and journalist gives his verdict on Tony Blair's memoirThe righteous will evidently never tire of the pelting and taunting of Tony Blair, and perhaps those like him who choose to join the Roman choir of extreme unctuousness must expect their...
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Michael Howard: ‘Tony Blair was a brilliant politician. But, ultimately, he was a failed prime minister’

Michael Howard: ‘Tony Blair was a brilliant politician. But, ultimately, he was a failed prime minister’

The former Leader of the Conservative Party gives his verdict on Tony Blair's memoirMuch has been written about the apparent candour of Tony Blair's memoir. He even concedes that on occasion he stretched the truth past breaking point. And he asserts th...
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Tony Blair’s memoirs are a journey we can all enjoy

Tony Blair’s memoirs are a journey we can all enjoy

"A Journey" tells us about everything from excessive drinking to the Labour leadershipIt was more than a publishing event. The launch of Tony Blair's memoirs, A Journey, became the text through which a whole host of people could examine a whole host of...
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Fiona Millar: ‘His perceptions about people and acute eye for the comic make it a good read’

2010/09/04
By Fiona Millar
Fiona Millar: ‘His perceptions about people and acute eye for the comic make it a good read’

The journalist and partner of Alastair Campbell gives her verdict on Tony Blair's memoirIn spite of my mixed relationship with the Blairs over the years, I prefer to think the best of them: their combined warmth, his humour, energy, determination,...
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Andrew O’Hagan: ‘Blair is cursed with a strong sense of his own decency’

2010/09/04
By Andrew O'Hagan
Andrew O’Hagan: ‘Blair is cursed with a strong sense of his own decency’

The novelist gives his verdict on Tony Blair's memoirThe Lord God so liked his little Tony that he placed him on Earth to show humanity how it should never trust a man who thinks his goodness is axiomatic. That's where the story begins and ends, but no...
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Peter Wilby: ‘Anybody who studies Blair is forced to the conclusion that what is really at the core of him is Christianity’

2010/09/04
By Peter Wilby
Peter Wilby: ‘Anybody who studies Blair is forced to the conclusion that what is really at the core of him is Christianity’

The New Statesman and Guardian writer gives his verdict on Tony Blair's memoirTony Blair was always the most mysterious of Britain's prime ministers, largely because, before he became Labour leader, he had never, unless you count assistant secretary of...
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Clare Short: ‘I was surprised by how messianic and hubristic it is right from the start. Early on, Blair was not like this’

2010/09/04
By Clare Short
Clare Short: ‘I was surprised by how messianic and hubristic it is right from the start. Early on, Blair was not like this’

The former Secretary of State for International Development gives her verdict on Tony Blair's memoirI was not intending to read the book, any more than those of Alastair Campbell or Peter Mandelson, but I was sent a copy for comment and curiosity got t...
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Stryker McGuire: ‘Americans have had a taste of Blair’s feud with Gordon Brown, but they will be struck by Blair’s venom’

2010/09/04
By Stryker McGuire
Stryker McGuire: ‘Americans have had a taste of Blair’s feud with Gordon Brown, but they will be struck by Blair’s venom’

The editor of LSE Research and contributing editor to Newsweek gives his verdict on Tony Blair's memoirThe image most Americans have of Tony Blair is in soft focus, to put it mildly. They see an attractive, articulate, sincere man who didn't think twic...
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Tony Blair’s A Journey: Andrew Rawnsley’s review

Tony Blair’s A Journey: Andrew Rawnsley’s review

The cliches and pop psychology will make you grimace, but Tony Blair's memoir is also remarkably candid – except when it comes to IraqIt is Tony Blair's boast that he wrote every word in longhand "on hundreds of notepads". That I believe. He was the ...
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Jonah Hex | Film review

2010/09/04
By Philip French
Jonah Hex | Film review

Sad that the year's only western so far should be a loud, coarse, overblown adaptation of a comic book, a choppy, sub-Leone affair in which the longest sustained sequence is the rolling of the final credits. Set on the eve of the centennial celebration...
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Claire Keegan: ‘Short stories are limited. I’m cornered into writing what I can’

2010/09/04
By Sean O'Hagan
Claire Keegan: ‘Short stories are limited. I’m cornered into writing what I can’

As one of her short stories appears as a stand-alone book, the Irish writer Claire Keegan discusses her work with Sean O'HaganIt was Hemingway who perhaps came closest to defining the art and craft of the great short story. "If a writer knows about wha...
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Tom Clancy’s Hawx2 | Game review

2010/09/04
By Simon Lucas
Tom Clancy’s Hawx2 | Game review

Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC, Ubisoft, cert 12Tom Clancy. The name is shorthand for mediocrity, be it attached to novels, movies or games. Like one of those service station sandwiches that costs £4 and tastes of packaging, a Tom Clancy-branded product will ...
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Mao’s Great Famine by Frank Dikötter

2010/09/04
By Jonathan Fenby
Mao’s Great Famine by Frank Dikötter

The horrors of China's Great Leap Forward are unveiled in this masterly study of the hateful planFrank Dikötter has written a masterly book that should be read not just by anybody interested in modern Chinese history but also by anybody concerned with...
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‘America’s top satirist’

2010/09/04
By Peter Conrad
‘America’s top satirist’

Gary Shteyngart's life story is more colourful than most fiction, and he draws on it again for his third, and best, satirical novelThese days, an American writer, like the politicians he votes for, needs a narrative – not a story to tell, but one he ...
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