“…I wanted this book to be different from the traditional political memoir.
Most, I have found, are rather easy to put down.
So what you will read here is not a conventional account of whom I met.
There are events and politicians who are absent … not because they don’t matter ….
…. but because they are part of a different story to the self-serving one I want to tell!
No, seriously guys, this is going to be well different.
How many other world leaders use so many exclamation marks!
And it is as a world leader that I’m writing for you about my journey.
And what a journey!
When I started in politics I was just an ordinary kind of guy.
And you know what? I’m still an ordinary kind of guy – albeit one who has become a multi-millionaire and completely destabilised the Middle East!
You know, I had a tear in my eye when I entered No10 for the first time in 1997, though it wasn’t, as the Daily Mail tried to claim, because I was choked with emotion at how far I had come since I was a young, ordinary boy standing on the terraces of St James’ Park, watching Jackie Milburn play for Newcastle.
It was because Gordon had hit me.
Ah, Gordon!
He meant well, I suppose … in his funny little emotionally inarticulate way.
I guess some of you will find it hard to believe … but I never really wanted to be a politician.
But sometimes courage is about taking the difficult decisions and when Cherie said, “God is calling you to fulfil your destiny”, I knew I had to listen.
So it was with a heavy heart that I outmanoeuvred Gordon over the leadership of the party after John’s death –
- and whatever Gordo says there was never a deal struck at Granita where he could take definitely take over after my second term.
Because I had my fingers crossed!…” (cont..)
go to source/story>>>Digested read: Tony Blair A Journey | Politics | The Guardian
