Diaries Volume One

As Alastair Campbell said in the introduction to The Blair Years, it was always his intention to publish the full version, covering his time as spokesman and chief strategist to Tony Blair. Prelude to Power is the first of four volumes, and covers the early days of New Labour, culminating in their victory at the polls in 1997.Volume 1 details the extraordinary tensions between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown as they resolved the question as to which one should stand to become Labour leader. It shows that right from the start, relations at the top were prone to enormous strain, suspicions and accusations of betrayal. Yet it also shows the political and personal bonds that tied them together, and which made them one of the most feared and respected electoral machines anywhere in the world. A story of politics in the raw, Prelude to Power is above all an intimate, detailed portrait of the people who have done so much to shape modern history.

As Alastair Campbell said in the introduction to The Blair Years, it was always his intention to publish the full version, covering his time as spokesman and chief strategist to Tony Blair. Prelude to Power is the first of four volumes, and covers the early days of New Labour, culminating in their victory at the polls in 1997.

Volume 1 details the extraordinary tensions between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown as they resolved the question as to which one should stand to become Labour leader. It shows that right from the start, relations at the top were prone to enormous strain, suspicions and accusations of betrayal. Yet it also shows the political and personal bonds that tied them together, and which made them one of the most feared and respected electoral machines anywhere in the world.

A story of politics in the raw, Prelude to Power is above all an intimate, detailed portrait of the people who have done so much to shape modern history.

Vorwort
The Blair Years was a taster. Prelude to Power reveals the diairies uncut. And it is just the beginning.

Autorentext

Alastair Campbell

Klappentext

'All of human life is here. It makes The Thick of It look tame. And sane' Sunday Times

THE BLAIR YEARS was a publishing sensation that in 2007 attracted critical acclaim around the world. Based on extracts from Alastair Campbell's diaries, it withheld politically sensitive material and the author admitted the full story would have to wait. Now that full story, recorded in meticulous detail every day that Campbell was alongside Tony Blair, can begin to be told, in the first of four riveting volumes.

PRELUDE TO POWER begins on the day John Smith dies and ends as Tony Blair enters Downing Street three years later. It offers a unique perspective on the key personalities in the New Labour story and the bonds and sometimes explosive tensions between them, capturing both the drama of an historic election campaign and the turmoil of modern political life.

Campbell, a powerful and controversial character, combines the eye of the journalist with the perception of the top-flight political strategist to produce diaries that are frank, often funny, always utterly compelling and which, as even his harshest critics have acknowledged, will be devoured by historians for generations.

'Campbell is a fluent and industrious reporter, with amazing stamina.' Daily Telegraph

'These diaries will be gasped at, and relied upon, for decades to come.' The Times