A Journey
Encyclopedia
A Journey is a memoir
written by Tony Blair
, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
between 1997 and 2007. Published on 1 September 2010, it is an account of how he became leader
of the Labour Party
in 1994 and transformed the party into "New Labour"; the party held power for a record three successive terms. The book also details events after his resignation and replacement
as Prime Minister by his Chancellor of the Exchequer
, Gordon Brown
. The memoir was initially titled The Journey, and plans to publish it were announced in March 2010; it was renamed A Journey prior to publishing. Blair donated his £
4.6m advance
, and all subsequent royalties
, to the British Armed Forces
charity the Royal British Legion; this decision received a mixed reception. Within hours of being launched, it became the fastest-selling autobiography of all time in one chain of book stores. Protesters disapproving of the Iraq War disrupted a book signing in Dublin on the weekend after the launch. This led to the cancellation of a book signing and launch party in London, amid fears of further hostility.
The book covers much-debated issues such as Blair's latterly strained relationship with Brown after allegedly making a pact with him in 1994 to step down much earlier, as well as his controversial decision
to take Britain into war with the 2003 invasion of Iraq
, the aftermath of which, Blair says in the book, was a "nightmare". The publication discusses Labour's future following Brown's defeat in the May 2010 general election; his relations with the Royal Family
; and how he came to "like and admire" President
George W. Bush
. In the final chapter, Blair warns that Labour must not return to the left-wing policies of the 1980s. Mixed reviews of the memoir appeared in the media; some journalists criticised Blair's writing style, but others praised the publication, saying the book was "candid." British novelist John Lanchester
described the book as "a detailed account of scrambling, scraping, horse-trading, bluffing, and fudging the way to a deal—a remarkable combination of the ramshackle and the historic."
Along with media reaction, several prominent figures expressed their views about the book. Gordon Brown was reportedly "seething" over the criticism he received from Blair in the book, but he told aides not to criticise the publication. Labour politician Alistair Darling
said the book "shows us what can be done when we have confidence, clarity and a clear sense of purpose: we can win and change the country for the better." Families of servicemen and servicewomen who were killed in Iraq reacted angrily to the book, in which Blair does not apologise for the invasion; a spokesperson for an organisation against the Iraq War described Blair's comments about regretting the loss of life as "completely meaningless." Shortly after the release of the book, the screenwriter of the 2006 film The Queen
, which depicts Blair's first months in office, accused Blair of plagiarising dialogue from the film in his description of a conversation with Elizabeth II.
, chairman and chief executive of Random House
, announced that the memoirs would be published by Hutchinson
in the United Kingdom. Rebuck predicted that the book would "break new ground in prime ministerial memoirs just as Blair himself broke the mould of British politics." Preliminary images of the book's cover, showing Blair in an open-neck shirt, were released. In July, the memoir was retitled as A Journey; one publishing expert said the decision was likely made to make Blair appear "less messianic". Random House did not give a specific reason for the decision, describing it as a "minor editorial decision". It was announced the book would by published by Knopf in the United States and Canada under the title A Journey: My Political Life; and in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and India, by Random House. The book was also released as an audiobook, read by Blair.
On 16 August 2010, Blair announced that he would give the £4.6m advance and all royalties from his memoirs to a sports centre for injured soldiers. BBC
political correspondent Norman Smith said Blair's severest critics would see the donation as "guilt money" for taking the UK to war against Iraq
in 2003. The father of a soldier killed in Iraq said the donation was "blood money". The father of a soldier killed by an improvised explosive device
in Iraq
said he did not think Blair made the donation "with a good heart," but because he had a "guilty conscience." A spokesperson for the Stop the War Coalition
welcomed the donation, but added, "[N]o proportion of Tony Blair's massive and ill-gotten fortune can buy him innocence or forgiveness. He took this country to war on a series of lies against the best legal advice and in defiance of majority opinion." A spokesman for Blair said that it had long been his intention to give the money to a charity; he added aiding soldiers undergoing rehabilitation at the Battle Back Challenge Centre was "his way of honouring their courage and sacrifice." The announcement was welcomed by Chris Simpkins, director general of the Royal British Legion, who said, "Mr Blair's generosity is much appreciated and will help us to make a real and lasting difference to the lives of hundreds of injured personnel."
, where it sold more copies in one day than Peter Mandelson
's The Third Man: Life at the Heart of New Labour
had done in its first three weeks after publication in July; the book went straight to No. 1 on Amazon.co.uk's British bestseller list. On 8 September, Nielsen BookScan
, which provides data for the book publishing industry, said that 92,000 copies of A Journey had been sold in the United Kingdom in less than a week, the best opening week for an autobiography since the company began keeping figures in 1998.The New York Times
reported that in the United States, an initial print run of 50,000 copies had been extended by another 25,000, with the book set to debut at No. 3 on The New York Times hardcover best-seller list on 19 September. Commenting on its success, Andrew Lake, the political book-buyer at Waterstone's, said,
To coincide with the book's release, Blair recorded a series of promotional interviews for radio and television, which were broadcast on 1 September. Among the media to screen these interviews were the Arabic television network Al Jazeera
, the ITV1
daytime magazine programme This Morning
, and BBC Two
, which aired an hour-long interview with Andrew Marr
. Blair was in Washington, D. C. on the day of the book's launch to participate in peace talks with Middle East leaders, and to attend a White House
dinner with Barack Obama
, Hillary Clinton, and Israel
i and Palestinian
leaders. British newspaper The Independent
reported that Blair's visit to the United States was a coincidence, and not an attempt to be out of the United Kingdom when the book was published. On 4 September, when Blair arrived for his first book signing at a leading bookshop on O'Connell Street
, Dublin, demonstrators opposed to the Iraq War
heckled, jeered and threw eggs and shoes at him; none of the objects hit him. One activist pretended to be a purchaser of the book in order to attempt a citizen's arrest
of Blair for war crimes. Protestors clashed with Irish police
and tried to push over a security barrier outside the shop. The demonstrators—anti-war protestors and Irish republicans
opposed to the peace process
—shouted abuse at those queueing to meet Tony Blair, calling them "traitors" and "West Brits". Four people were arrested during the incident.
On 6 September, several days after the launch of the book, Blair appeared on the inaugural edition of British television programme Daybreak
, where he criticised the Dublin protestors as a small minority given undue media attention. Citing the already good sales figures, he expressed doubts over whether a forthcoming book signing in London on 8 September was justifiable and worth the inevitable disruption, given fears that the British National Party
and other hostile groups were planning to get involved in the protests. Later in the day it was confirmed the signing at Waterstone's in Piccadilly
would not go ahead. On 7 September, a spokesman for Blair announced that a planned launch party for the book scheduled for the next evening at the Tate Modern
would take place despite plans by the Stop the War Coalition
to hold a demonstration against the event. However, the following day this event was also cancelled as a result of threats of disruption by campaigners. In the weeks following the publication, a number of media organisations reported that copies of A Journey were being moved from autobiographical sections in bookshops to sections on crime and horror. More than 10,000 people had joined a page on the social networking site Facebook
which called for members of the public to move the books as a protest against the Iraq War. A member of the group said,
and his subsequent years as British Prime Minister
following his party's victory at the 1997 general election
. In the book, Blair describes his often difficult relationship with Chancellor Gordon Brown as being "like a couple who loved each other, arguing over whose career should come first", and he calls Brown a "strange guy". who had "zero" emotional intelligence, He says he promised Brown in 2003 that he would resign before the next general election
, but later changed his mind. He accuses him of blackmail, claiming that his former Chancellor threatened to call for a Labour Party inquiry into the cash for honours affair during an argument over pension policy. Blair admits that he was behind the decision to hand control of interest rates to the Bank of England
rather than Brown. Labour's 2010 election defeat is blamed on Brown, who Blair accuses of abandoning New Labour's policies. He does have some praise for him, however, crediting him with being a good Chancellor and a committed public servant. "So was he difficult, at times maddening? Yes. But he was also strong, capable and brilliant, and those were qualities for which I never lost respect," he says of Brown. "When it's said that I should have sacked him, or demoted him, this takes no account of the fact that had I done so, the party and the Government would have been severely and immediately destabilised ... It is easy to say now, in the light of his tenure as prime minister, that I should have stopped it; at the time that would have been well nigh impossible."
Blair discusses at length his thoughts on military intervention in Iraq, saying, "Friends opposed to the war think I'm being obstinate; others, less friendly, think I'm being delusional," but he concedes that the aftermath of the invasion was a "nightmare". Blair defends his decision to go to war, saying Saddam Hussein
"[h]ad not abandoned the strategy of WMD [weapons of mass destruction], merely made a tactical decision to put it into abeyance". He says that he would make the same decision again with regard to Iran
, warning that if that country develops nuclear weapons it will change the balance of power of the Middle East to the region's detriment. Of the situation in Iraq, he writes that some problems require a "resolution" and fester if left unattended. On the loss of life in Iraq, he says,
He also writes of wanting George W. Bush
, who spearheaded the Iraq invasion, to win a second term as President of the United States
in 2004. "George had immense simplicity in how he saw the world," he says of Bush in the book. "Right or wrong, it led to decisive leadership. I had come to like and admire George. I was asked recently which of the political leaders I had met had most integrity. I listed George near the top." On his role in the Northern Ireland peace process
, Blair refers to having used "a certain amount of creative ambiguity" during negotiations, saying that the process would not have succeeded without it. He claims to have stretched the truth "on occasions past breaking point" in the run-up to the 2007 power-sharing deal which enabled the return of devolved legislative powers from Westminster
to the Northern Ireland Executive
. He praises both Gerry Adams
and Martin McGuinness
of Sinn Féin
for the part they played in the peace process. On the subject of the British Royal Family
, Blair writes of conversations he had with Elizabeth II. At their first meeting following his election he claims Elizabeth II told him, "You are my tenth prime minister. The first was Winston. That was before you were born." He tells of another occasion following the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales
, in which he says Elizabeth II told him that lessons had to be learned from the way things had been handled after the Princess's death
. He also recounts a gathering at Balmoral Castle
during which Prince Philip
operated the barbecue and Elizabeth II donned a pair of rubber glove
s to wash up afterwards.
While he denies a dependence on alcohol
, Blair says that he started drinking while in office to cope with his relationship with Brown. "By the standards of days gone by I was not even remotely a toper, and I couldn't do lunchtime drinking except on Christmas Day, but if you took the thing everyone always lies about—units per week—I was definitely at the outer limit," he says. "Stiff whisky or G&T before dinner, couple of glasses of wine or even half a bottle with it. So not excessively excessive. I had a limit. But I was aware that it had become a prop." Blair describes alcohol as "a relief to pressure. It is a stimulant. It can make a boring evening tolerable. But it plays a part in your life." Blair says that Brown was right to restructure British banks and introduce an economic stimulus after the financial crisis, but says that he would have slowly increased VAT
and other taxes—a process known as "stealth tax
"—which his government was regularly criticised for doing. "The role of government is to stabilise and then get out of the way as quickly as economically sensible," Blair writes. Blair claims in the publication that he had a premonition that his predecessor, John Smith, would die less than a month before he did so in 1994. Blair goes on to say that he knew that he would be the one to succeed Smith as Labour leader rather than Gordon Brown, who had been a strong contender for the job. He talks of "devouring" his wife Cherie
in a passionate lovemaking session on the night he decided to run for the leadership. The final chapter of the book is a critique of Labour Party policy and discusses the party's future, with Blair warning Gordon Brown's successor that if Labour is to remain electable they should continue with the policies of New Labour and not return to the left-wing policies of the 1980s. He says,
, editor of The Financial Times wrote that Blair's autobiography was "part psychodrama, part treatise on the frustrations of leadership in a modern democracy," saying it is "written in a chummy style with touches of Mills & Boon
". Barber further writes, "Blair comes across as likable, if manipulative
; capable of dissembling while wonderfully fluent; in short, a brilliant modern politician (whatever his moans about the media)." Writing in The Independent on Sunday
, Geoffrey Beattie called the book "revelatory". He added the book offered an understanding of Blair's "underlying psychology." He said,
John Rentoul
, author of the Blair biography Tony Blair Prime Minister, was equally positive, giving particular praise to the chapter on the Iraq War. "The chapter on Iraq is tightly argued in some detail, which may persuade those with open minds to recognise that the decision to join the US invasion was a reasonable, if not very successful, one, rather than a conspiracy against life, the universe and everything decent," he said. The New York Times
praised Blair for his openness in the publication, saying. "When speaking about the challenges of his first term in office, Blair writes honestly and openly," the newspaper said. "The style is not the elegant Oxbridge prose that might have been expected of a former prime minister but one filled with Americanisms. It is breezy, informal and candid enough to keep the reader thoroughly engaged." However, the newspaper attacked Blair's "sweeping generalizations" about terrorism, saying, "Regarding the war on terror
, the book assumes a very different character. It is marked by grand statements, sweeping generalizations, constant evocations of destiny and national character, and long quotations from government reports and Blair’s speeches. All that was gray becomes black and white."
Other reviewers gave the book a less positive reception. Writing in The Observer
, political journalist and author Andrew Rawnsley
was critical of Blair's writing style. "It is Tony Blair's boast that he wrote every word in longhand 'on hundreds of notepads'. That I believe," he wrote. "He was the most brilliant communicator of his era as a platform speaker or television interviewee, but he can be a ghastly writer. Anyone thinking about taking this journey needs to be given a travel advisory: much of the prose is execrable ... I could say that it is a pity that Tony Blair did not employ a ghostwriter to prettify the prose and organise his recollections more elegantly." Rawnsley does, though, praise the book as being "a more honest political memoir than most and more open in many respects than I had anticipated." Mary Ann Sieghart
, writing for The Independent said, "whatever its faults, and toe-curling passages, [A Journey] has many good lessons on how to succeed in both opposition and government. The Daily Mail
, on the other hand, dismissed the book as "more Bridget Jones
than Henry Kissinger
." Julian Glover, a columnist in The Guardian
, said that "no political memoir has ever been like this: a book written as if in a dream—or a nightmare; a literary out-of-body experience. By turns honest, confused, memorable, boastful, fitfully endearing, important, lazy, shallow, rambling and intellectually correct, it scampers through the last two decades like a trashy airport read." Glover also criticises Blair's prose, but says that "you can't put it down." He adds, "At times its great flaws are magicked away by his brilliance as a politician, the man who can make you believe. Then, pages later, you feel almost sick. There are at least three gushing sexual passages, more Mills and Boon than prime ministerial memoir."
British journalist Toby Young
, author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
, a memoir charting his failed five-year effort to become a contributing editor at Vanity Fair
magazine, said that A Journey read like the "latest salvo from Katie Price in her ongoing battle with Peter André
." Young said, "I was expecting some high-minded lessons in the art of statesmanship, not a series of jaw-dropping revelations about Gordon Brown. Reading these memoirs, you get the impression that Tony Blair’s visceral hatred of his chief rival has clouded his political judgment. Champagne corks will be popping in Downing Street tonight because A Journey does very little to enhance the reputation of either Blair or Brown." Anthony Seldon
, author of a biography of Blair entitled Blair Unbound, said that the book "tells a lot." He told Sky News
, "It could have been a much better book if he had reflected more and he needed to be more candid about the most controversial war that Britain has fought in decades, about why he didn't do more to prepare for the aftermath in Iraq." Political blog
politics.co.uk described the book as "a rather clever bit of defensive rhetoric" which Blair uses to defend his decisions while in power. The article continued, however, to say the article is written in a different style to other political memoirs. "Reports that it was not ghost written must surely be true. You can almost hear him talking. Certain moments see his undoubted political genius translate into exquisite writing." The Oxonian Review
regards the "folksy, well-paced, and at times cinematic" memoir as reflecting Blair's attempt to grasp for "an understanding of his political life, its evolution from fearful popularity to courageous ignominy." Writing in American magazine The New Yorker
, British novelist John Lanchester
said that the book was "a detailed account of scrambling, scraping, horse-trading, bluffing, and fudging the way to a deal—a remarkable combination of the ramshackle and the historic." The Sunday Telegraph was extremely critical of Blair's writing style. "If Blair wants to tell you a funny story, he makes the mistake of signalling in advance that you should be laughing—what happened was 'hilarious', his first weekend at Balmoral was 'utterly freaky'—thereby strangling the anecdote at birth. The book, like its author, is slightly embarrassing." However, the newspaper said that the book was "all a little sad," saying,
reported that Elizabeth II felt a "profound sense of disappointment" in Blair for breaking with protocol by revealing in his memoirs sensitive details of private conversations he had with her during his time as Prime Minister. It is generally accepted that a Prime Minister does not discuss details of conversations he has with the Queen. A spokesman for Buckingham Palace
told the newspaper, "No prime minister before has ever done this and we can only hope that it will never happen again." On 5 September, The Sunday Express claimed, quoting "renowned Royal biographer Hugo Vickers" and other "Royal insiders", that due to the book's contents, Elizabeth II would withhold granting him the Order of the Thistle
, an honour which is bestowed on the sovereign's personal prerogative, which is given almost automatically to leaders of Scottish descent after leaving office. On 3 September The Independent reported that Gordon Brown was said to be "seething" and "dismayed" over the criticism he received from Blair in the book, but had told aides not to criticise it. Ed Balls
, a Brown ally who served in his government
as Secretary of State for Children Schools and Families said, "It would have been much better if the memoirs had been a celebration of success rather than recriminations. In that sense I thought it was all a bit sad. It was so one-sided. I didn't think it was comradely."
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Several more of Blair's former colleagues and political opponents also commented on the book. Former Conservative
minister Norman Tebbit
wrote in The Daily Telegraph, "A Journey seems to be dominated by Blair's anxiety to be seen as a great political leader who changed his country for the better. In fact it is, as I suppose all such books are to some extent, entirely about justifying himself and blaming others." However, Tebbit admitted he had not read the book at the time of writing about it and bases his opinion on media coverage of its content. Writing in The Guardian, Alistair Darling
, who was Chancellor under Gordon Brown's government
, said that he "read with wry amusement how Tony Blair felt after much agonising that he couldn't sack his Chancellor. History has a habit of repeating itself." He concluded that the book was "a good read and shows us what can be done when we have confidence, clarity and a clear sense of purpose: we can win and change the country for the better." Labour MP Tom Harris said that the book "will be a reminder that opposition doesn't have to be permanent, and that great things can be accomplished by a Labour government, but only if we have a leader capable of appealing to voters beyond our own party's core." Of Blair, he said, "There are still many, many Labour Party members who remember Blair as an election-winning genius who, in office, was popular for an awful lot longer than he was unpopular." Ed Miliband
, who was elected
as Leader of the Labour Party several weeks after the release of the book, said on the day of its publication,
Families of servicemen and servicewomen who were killed in Iraq reacted angrily to the book, in which Blair does not apologise for the invasion. "I can't regret the decision to go to war. I can say never did I guess the bloody, destructive and chaotic nightmare that unfolded—and that too is part of the responsibility," he says in the book. Reg Keys
, whose son Tom Keys was killed in the country in 2005, said that the book was "just crocodile tears
from Blair." Keys said, "The tears he claims to have shed are nothing like the tears I and my wife have shed for our son. They are nothing like the tears that tens of thousands of Iraqis have shed for their loved ones. They don't even come close to it. They seem to me like crocodile tears. It is a cynical attempt to sanitise his legacy." A spokesperson for Military Families Against the War
said that Blair's expression of regret over the loss of life was "completely meaningless." The spokesperson added, "He has to prove his regret and giving money to charity doesn't come close. He is giving a miniscule amount compared to the cost of war and rehabilitation of injured soldiers. It is laughable."
Some of the dialogue Blair uses to describe his first meeting with Elizabeth II led to accusations of possible plagiarism from Peter Morgan
, the screenwriter of the 2006 biopic The Queen
, which recounts events during the first few months of Blair's premiership. Blair recalls his first meeting with Elizabeth II in which she tells him, "You are my 10th prime minister. The first was Winston. That was before you were born." In the film, Helen Mirren
's fictionalised Elizabeth II tells him, "You are my 10th prime minister, Mr. Blair. My first was Winston Churchill." Morgan told The Daily Telegraph on 8 September that he had imagined the dialogue for this conversation, as no record of conversations between a Monarch and a Prime Minister are kept. He said,
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
written by Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
between 1997 and 2007. Published on 1 September 2010, it is an account of how he became leader
Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 1994
A leadership election was held on 21 July 1994 for the Labour Party in the United Kingdom, after the sudden death of incumbent leader John Smith. The 1994 election would ultimately decide not only Labour's new leader, but also the next Prime Minister...
of the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
in 1994 and transformed the party into "New Labour"; the party held power for a record three successive terms. The book also details events after his resignation and replacement
Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 2007
The 2007 Labour Party Leadership Election was formally triggered on 10 May 2007 by the resignation of Tony Blair, Labour Leader since the previous leadership contest on 21 July 1994...
as Prime Minister by his Chancellor of the Exchequer
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
, Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
. The memoir was initially titled The Journey, and plans to publish it were announced in March 2010; it was renamed A Journey prior to publishing. Blair donated his £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
4.6m advance
Advance against royalties
In the field of intellectual property licensing, an advance against royalties is a payment made by the licensee to the licensor at the start of the period of licensing which is to be offset against future royalty payments.For example, a book's author may sell a license to a publisher in return for...
, and all subsequent royalties
Royalties
Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
, to the British Armed Forces
British Armed Forces
The British Armed Forces are the armed forces of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.Also known as Her Majesty's Armed Forces and sometimes legally the Armed Forces of the Crown, the British Armed Forces encompasses three professional uniformed services, the Royal Navy, the...
charity the Royal British Legion; this decision received a mixed reception. Within hours of being launched, it became the fastest-selling autobiography of all time in one chain of book stores. Protesters disapproving of the Iraq War disrupted a book signing in Dublin on the weekend after the launch. This led to the cancellation of a book signing and launch party in London, amid fears of further hostility.
The book covers much-debated issues such as Blair's latterly strained relationship with Brown after allegedly making a pact with him in 1994 to step down much earlier, as well as his controversial decision
Opposition to the Iraq War
Significant opposition to the Iraq War occurred worldwide, both before and during the initial 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States, United Kingdom, and smaller contingents from other nations, and throughout the subsequent occupation...
to take Britain into war with the 2003 invasion of Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
, the aftermath of which, Blair says in the book, was a "nightmare". The publication discusses Labour's future following Brown's defeat in the May 2010 general election; his relations with the Royal Family
British Royal Family
The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...
; and how he came to "like and admire" President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
. In the final chapter, Blair warns that Labour must not return to the left-wing policies of the 1980s. Mixed reviews of the memoir appeared in the media; some journalists criticised Blair's writing style, but others praised the publication, saying the book was "candid." British novelist John Lanchester
John Lanchester
John Henry Lanchester is a British journalist and novelist. He was born in Hamburg, brought up in Hong Kong and educated in England, at Gresham's School, Holt between 1972 and 1980 and St John's College, Oxford.-Works:...
described the book as "a detailed account of scrambling, scraping, horse-trading, bluffing, and fudging the way to a deal—a remarkable combination of the ramshackle and the historic."
Along with media reaction, several prominent figures expressed their views about the book. Gordon Brown was reportedly "seething" over the criticism he received from Blair in the book, but he told aides not to criticise the publication. Labour politician Alistair Darling
Alistair Darling
Alistair Maclean Darling is a Scottish Labour Party politician who has been a Member of Parliament since 1987, currently for Edinburgh South West. He served as the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2007 to 2010...
said the book "shows us what can be done when we have confidence, clarity and a clear sense of purpose: we can win and change the country for the better." Families of servicemen and servicewomen who were killed in Iraq reacted angrily to the book, in which Blair does not apologise for the invasion; a spokesperson for an organisation against the Iraq War described Blair's comments about regretting the loss of life as "completely meaningless." Shortly after the release of the book, the screenwriter of the 2006 film The Queen
The Queen (film)
The Queen is a 2006 British drama film directed by Stephen Frears, written by Peter Morgan, and starring Helen Mirren as the title role, HM Queen Elizabeth II...
, which depicts Blair's first months in office, accused Blair of plagiarising dialogue from the film in his description of a conversation with Elizabeth II.
History
In March 2010, it was reported that Blair's memoirs, titled The Journey, would be published in September of that year. On 4 March, Gail RebuckGail Rebuck
Dame Gail Rebuck, Baroness Gould of Brookwood DBE is a British publisher, chairman and chief executive of Random House UK. She was married to Philip Gould, Lord Gould of Brookwood until his death in November 2011.-Life:...
, chairman and chief executive of Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
, announced that the memoirs would be published by Hutchinson
Hutchinson (publisher)
Hutchinson & Co. was an English book publisher, founded in 1887. The company merged with Century Publishing in 1985 to form Century Hutchinson, and was folded into the British Random House Group in 1989, where it remains as an imprint in the Cornerstone Publishing division...
in the United Kingdom. Rebuck predicted that the book would "break new ground in prime ministerial memoirs just as Blair himself broke the mould of British politics." Preliminary images of the book's cover, showing Blair in an open-neck shirt, were released. In July, the memoir was retitled as A Journey; one publishing expert said the decision was likely made to make Blair appear "less messianic". Random House did not give a specific reason for the decision, describing it as a "minor editorial decision". It was announced the book would by published by Knopf in the United States and Canada under the title A Journey: My Political Life; and in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and India, by Random House. The book was also released as an audiobook, read by Blair.
On 16 August 2010, Blair announced that he would give the £4.6m advance and all royalties from his memoirs to a sports centre for injured soldiers. BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
political correspondent Norman Smith said Blair's severest critics would see the donation as "guilt money" for taking the UK to war against Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
in 2003. The father of a soldier killed in Iraq said the donation was "blood money". The father of a soldier killed by an improvised explosive device
Improvised explosive device
An improvised explosive device , also known as a roadside bomb, is a homemade bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action...
in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
said he did not think Blair made the donation "with a good heart," but because he had a "guilty conscience." A spokesperson for the Stop the War Coalition
Stop the War Coalition
The Stop the War Coalition is a United Kingdom group set up on 21 September 2001 that campaigns against what it believes are unjust wars....
welcomed the donation, but added, "[N]o proportion of Tony Blair's massive and ill-gotten fortune can buy him innocence or forgiveness. He took this country to war on a series of lies against the best legal advice and in defiance of majority opinion." A spokesman for Blair said that it had long been his intention to give the money to a charity; he added aiding soldiers undergoing rehabilitation at the Battle Back Challenge Centre was "his way of honouring their courage and sacrifice." The announcement was welcomed by Chris Simpkins, director general of the Royal British Legion, who said, "Mr Blair's generosity is much appreciated and will help us to make a real and lasting difference to the lives of hundreds of injured personnel."
Publication
A Journey was published on 1 September, and within hours of its launch it became the fastest-selling autobiography of all time at bookseller Waterstone'sWaterstone's
Waterstone's is a British book specialist established in 1982 by Tim Waterstone that employs around 4,500 staff throughout the United Kingdom and Europe....
, where it sold more copies in one day than Peter Mandelson
Peter Mandelson
Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, PC is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004, served in a number of Cabinet positions under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and was a European Commissioner...
's The Third Man: Life at the Heart of New Labour
The Third Man: Life at the Heart of New Labour
The Third Man: Life at the Heart of New Labour, published in July 2010, is the memoir of Peter Mandelson, former senior government minister and confidant in the New Labour governments of both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown ....
had done in its first three weeks after publication in July; the book went straight to No. 1 on Amazon.co.uk's British bestseller list. On 8 September, Nielsen BookScan
Nielsen BookScan
Nielsen BookScan is a data provider for the book publishing industry, owned by the Nielsen Company. BookScan compiles point of sale data for book sales.-History:...
, which provides data for the book publishing industry, said that 92,000 copies of A Journey had been sold in the United Kingdom in less than a week, the best opening week for an autobiography since the company began keeping figures in 1998.The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
reported that in the United States, an initial print run of 50,000 copies had been extended by another 25,000, with the book set to debut at No. 3 on The New York Times hardcover best-seller list on 19 September. Commenting on its success, Andrew Lake, the political book-buyer at Waterstone's, said,
To coincide with the book's release, Blair recorded a series of promotional interviews for radio and television, which were broadcast on 1 September. Among the media to screen these interviews were the Arabic television network Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...
, the ITV1
ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...
daytime magazine programme This Morning
This Morning (TV series)
This Morning is a British daytime television programme broadcast on ITV. As of September 2011, its main presenters are Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, and Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes, with various other presenters standing in for illness or contributing to sections of the programme.The...
, and BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
, which aired an hour-long interview with Andrew Marr
Andrew Marr
Andrew William Stevenson Marr is a Scottish journalist and political commentator. He edited The Independent for two years until May 1998, and was political editor of BBC News from 2000 until 2005....
. Blair was in Washington, D. C. on the day of the book's launch to participate in peace talks with Middle East leaders, and to attend a White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
dinner with Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, Hillary Clinton, and Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i and Palestinian
State of Palestine
Palestine , officially declared as the State of Palestine , is a state that was proclaimed in exile in Algiers on 15 November 1988, when the Palestine Liberation Organization's National Council adopted the unilateral Palestinian Declaration of Independence...
leaders. British newspaper The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
reported that Blair's visit to the United States was a coincidence, and not an attempt to be out of the United Kingdom when the book was published. On 4 September, when Blair arrived for his first book signing at a leading bookshop on O'Connell Street
O'Connell Street
O'Connell Street is Dublin's main thoroughfare. It measures 49 m in width at its southern end, 46 m at the north, and is 500 m in length...
, Dublin, demonstrators opposed to the Iraq War
Opposition to the Iraq War
Significant opposition to the Iraq War occurred worldwide, both before and during the initial 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States, United Kingdom, and smaller contingents from other nations, and throughout the subsequent occupation...
heckled, jeered and threw eggs and shoes at him; none of the objects hit him. One activist pretended to be a purchaser of the book in order to attempt a citizen's arrest
Citizen's arrest
A citizen's arrest is an arrest made by a person who is not acting as a sworn law-enforcement official. In common law jurisdictions, the practice dates back to medieval Britain and the English common law, in which sheriffs encouraged ordinary citizens to help apprehend law breakers.Despite the...
of Blair for war crimes. Protestors clashed with Irish police
Garda Síochána
, more commonly referred to as the Gardaí , is the police force of Ireland. The service is headed by the Commissioner who is appointed by the Irish Government. Its headquarters are located in the Phoenix Park in Dublin.- Terminology :...
and tried to push over a security barrier outside the shop. The demonstrators—anti-war protestors and Irish republicans
Irish Republicanism
Irish republicanism is an ideology based on the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic.In 1801, under the Act of Union, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
opposed to the peace process
Northern Ireland peace process
The peace process, when discussing the history of Northern Ireland, is often considered to cover the events leading up to the 1994 Provisional Irish Republican Army ceasefire, the end of most of the violence of the Troubles, the Belfast Agreement, and subsequent political developments.-Towards a...
—shouted abuse at those queueing to meet Tony Blair, calling them "traitors" and "West Brits". Four people were arrested during the incident.
On 6 September, several days after the launch of the book, Blair appeared on the inaugural edition of British television programme Daybreak
Daybreak (ITV)
Daybreak is the weekday breakfast television programme on the British commercial ITV network that broadcasts on weekday mornings from 06:00 to 08:30 and is currently presented by Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley from Monday to Thursday with Dan Lobb and Kate Garraway on Fridays...
, where he criticised the Dublin protestors as a small minority given undue media attention. Citing the already good sales figures, he expressed doubts over whether a forthcoming book signing in London on 8 September was justifiable and worth the inevitable disruption, given fears that the British National Party
British National Party
The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
and other hostile groups were planning to get involved in the protests. Later in the day it was confirmed the signing at Waterstone's in Piccadilly
Piccadilly
Piccadilly is a major street in central London, running from Hyde Park Corner in the west to Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is completely within the city of Westminster. The street is part of the A4 road, London's second most important western artery. St...
would not go ahead. On 7 September, a spokesman for Blair announced that a planned launch party for the book scheduled for the next evening at the Tate Modern
Tate Modern
Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...
would take place despite plans by the Stop the War Coalition
Stop the War Coalition
The Stop the War Coalition is a United Kingdom group set up on 21 September 2001 that campaigns against what it believes are unjust wars....
to hold a demonstration against the event. However, the following day this event was also cancelled as a result of threats of disruption by campaigners. In the weeks following the publication, a number of media organisations reported that copies of A Journey were being moved from autobiographical sections in bookshops to sections on crime and horror. More than 10,000 people had joined a page on the social networking site Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
which called for members of the public to move the books as a protest against the Iraq War. A member of the group said,
Synopsis
A Journey is Tony Blair's account of his time as leader of the Labour PartyLabour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
and his subsequent years as British Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
following his party's victory at the 1997 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...
. In the book, Blair describes his often difficult relationship with Chancellor Gordon Brown as being "like a couple who loved each other, arguing over whose career should come first", and he calls Brown a "strange guy". who had "zero" emotional intelligence, He says he promised Brown in 2003 that he would resign before the next general election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
, but later changed his mind. He accuses him of blackmail, claiming that his former Chancellor threatened to call for a Labour Party inquiry into the cash for honours affair during an argument over pension policy. Blair admits that he was behind the decision to hand control of interest rates to the Bank of England
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...
rather than Brown. Labour's 2010 election defeat is blamed on Brown, who Blair accuses of abandoning New Labour's policies. He does have some praise for him, however, crediting him with being a good Chancellor and a committed public servant. "So was he difficult, at times maddening? Yes. But he was also strong, capable and brilliant, and those were qualities for which I never lost respect," he says of Brown. "When it's said that I should have sacked him, or demoted him, this takes no account of the fact that had I done so, the party and the Government would have been severely and immediately destabilised ... It is easy to say now, in the light of his tenure as prime minister, that I should have stopped it; at the time that would have been well nigh impossible."
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
"[h]ad not abandoned the strategy of WMD [weapons of mass destruction], merely made a tactical decision to put it into abeyance". He says that he would make the same decision again with regard to Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, warning that if that country develops nuclear weapons it will change the balance of power of the Middle East to the region's detriment. Of the situation in Iraq, he writes that some problems require a "resolution" and fester if left unattended. On the loss of life in Iraq, he says,
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, who spearheaded the Iraq invasion, to win a second term as President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
in 2004. "George had immense simplicity in how he saw the world," he says of Bush in the book. "Right or wrong, it led to decisive leadership. I had come to like and admire George. I was asked recently which of the political leaders I had met had most integrity. I listed George near the top." On his role in the Northern Ireland peace process
Northern Ireland peace process
The peace process, when discussing the history of Northern Ireland, is often considered to cover the events leading up to the 1994 Provisional Irish Republican Army ceasefire, the end of most of the violence of the Troubles, the Belfast Agreement, and subsequent political developments.-Towards a...
, Blair refers to having used "a certain amount of creative ambiguity" during negotiations, saying that the process would not have succeeded without it. He claims to have stretched the truth "on occasions past breaking point" in the run-up to the 2007 power-sharing deal which enabled the return of devolved legislative powers from Westminster
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
to the Northern Ireland Executive
Northern Ireland Executive
The Northern Ireland Executive is the executive arm of the Northern Ireland Assembly, the devolved legislature for Northern Ireland. It is answerable to the Assembly and was established according to the terms of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, which followed the Good Friday Agreement...
. He praises both Gerry Adams
Gerry Adams
Gerry Adams is an Irish republican politician and Teachta Dála for the constituency of Louth. From 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2011, he was an abstentionist Westminster Member of Parliament for Belfast West. He is the president of Sinn Féin, the second largest political party in Northern...
and Martin McGuinness
Martin McGuinness
James Martin Pacelli McGuinness is an Irish Sinn Féin politician and the current deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. McGuinness was also the Sinn Féin candidate for the Irish presidential election, 2011. He was born in Derry, Northern Ireland....
of Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
for the part they played in the peace process. On the subject of the British Royal Family
British Royal Family
The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...
, Blair writes of conversations he had with Elizabeth II. At their first meeting following his election he claims Elizabeth II told him, "You are my tenth prime minister. The first was Winston. That was before you were born." He tells of another occasion following the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century...
, in which he says Elizabeth II told him that lessons had to be learned from the way things had been handled after the Princess's death
Death of Diana, Princess of Wales
On 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, died as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris, France. Her companion, Dodi Fayed, and the driver of the Mercedes-Benz W140, Henri Paul, were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. Fayed's...
. He also recounts a gathering at Balmoral Castle
Balmoral Castle
Balmoral Castle is a large estate house in Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is located near the village of Crathie, west of Ballater and east of Braemar. Balmoral has been one of the residences of the British Royal Family since 1852, when it was purchased by Queen Victoria and her...
during which Prince Philip
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
operated the barbecue and Elizabeth II donned a pair of rubber glove
Rubber glove
A rubber glove is a glove made out of rubber. Rubber gloves can be unsupported or supported . Its primary purpose is protection of the hands while performing tasks involving chemicals. Rubber gloves are worn during dishwashing to protect the hands from detergent and allow the use of hotter water...
s to wash up afterwards.
While he denies a dependence on alcohol
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
, Blair says that he started drinking while in office to cope with his relationship with Brown. "By the standards of days gone by I was not even remotely a toper, and I couldn't do lunchtime drinking except on Christmas Day, but if you took the thing everyone always lies about—units per week—I was definitely at the outer limit," he says. "Stiff whisky or G&T before dinner, couple of glasses of wine or even half a bottle with it. So not excessively excessive. I had a limit. But I was aware that it had become a prop." Blair describes alcohol as "a relief to pressure. It is a stimulant. It can make a boring evening tolerable. But it plays a part in your life." Blair says that Brown was right to restructure British banks and introduce an economic stimulus after the financial crisis, but says that he would have slowly increased VAT
Vat
Vat or VAT may refer to:* A type of container such as a barrel, storage tank, or tub, often constructed of welded sheet stainless steel, and used for holding, storing, and processing liquids such as milk, wine, and beer...
and other taxes—a process known as "stealth tax
Stealth tax
A stealth tax is a tax levied in such a way that is largely unnoticed, or not recognized as a tax,. The phrase was generally used in the United Kingdom by Conservatives to attack the New Labour government's behaviour...
"—which his government was regularly criticised for doing. "The role of government is to stabilise and then get out of the way as quickly as economically sensible," Blair writes. Blair claims in the publication that he had a premonition that his predecessor, John Smith, would die less than a month before he did so in 1994. Blair goes on to say that he knew that he would be the one to succeed Smith as Labour leader rather than Gordon Brown, who had been a strong contender for the job. He talks of "devouring" his wife Cherie
Cherie Blair
Cherie Blair , known professionally as Cherie Booth QC, is a British barrister working in the legal system of England and Wales. She is married to the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair; the couple have three sons and one daughter...
in a passionate lovemaking session on the night he decided to run for the leadership. The final chapter of the book is a critique of Labour Party policy and discusses the party's future, with Blair warning Gordon Brown's successor that if Labour is to remain electable they should continue with the policies of New Labour and not return to the left-wing policies of the 1980s. He says,
Reviews
The book received a mixed reception from critics. Lionel BarberLionel Barber
Lionel Barber is an English journalist.Barber was appointed Editor of the Financial Times in November 2005. Previously, he was the Financial Times' U.S. Managing Editor and before that, Editor of the FT's Continental European edition , during which he briefed US President George W. Bush ahead of...
, editor of The Financial Times wrote that Blair's autobiography was "part psychodrama, part treatise on the frustrations of leadership in a modern democracy," saying it is "written in a chummy style with touches of Mills & Boon
Mills & Boon
Mills & Boon is a British publisher of romance novels. It was founded in 1908, and was independent until its purchase in 1971 by Harlequin Enterprises with whom the company had had a long informal partnership...
". Barber further writes, "Blair comes across as likable, if manipulative
Psychological manipulation
Psychological manipulation is a type of social influence that aims to change the perception or behavior of others through underhanded, deceptive, or even abusive tactics. By advancing the interests of the manipulator, often at the other's expense, such methods could be considered exploitative,...
; capable of dissembling while wonderfully fluent; in short, a brilliant modern politician (whatever his moans about the media)." Writing in The Independent on Sunday
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, Geoffrey Beattie called the book "revelatory". He added the book offered an understanding of Blair's "underlying psychology." He said,
John Rentoul
John Rentoul is a British journalist, who is the chief political commentator for the Independent on Sunday.He has been in this position since February 2004, having previously been chief political commentator at the Independent since January 1997...
, author of the Blair biography Tony Blair Prime Minister, was equally positive, giving particular praise to the chapter on the Iraq War. "The chapter on Iraq is tightly argued in some detail, which may persuade those with open minds to recognise that the decision to join the US invasion was a reasonable, if not very successful, one, rather than a conspiracy against life, the universe and everything decent," he said. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
praised Blair for his openness in the publication, saying. "When speaking about the challenges of his first term in office, Blair writes honestly and openly," the newspaper said. "The style is not the elegant Oxbridge prose that might have been expected of a former prime minister but one filled with Americanisms. It is breezy, informal and candid enough to keep the reader thoroughly engaged." However, the newspaper attacked Blair's "sweeping generalizations" about terrorism, saying, "Regarding the war on terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
, the book assumes a very different character. It is marked by grand statements, sweeping generalizations, constant evocations of destiny and national character, and long quotations from government reports and Blair’s speeches. All that was gray becomes black and white."
Other reviewers gave the book a less positive reception. Writing in The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, political journalist and author Andrew Rawnsley
Andrew Rawnsley
Andrew Nicholas James Rawnsley is a British political journalist, notably for The Observer, and broadcaster.-Early life:...
was critical of Blair's writing style. "It is Tony Blair's boast that he wrote every word in longhand 'on hundreds of notepads'. That I believe," he wrote. "He was the most brilliant communicator of his era as a platform speaker or television interviewee, but he can be a ghastly writer. Anyone thinking about taking this journey needs to be given a travel advisory: much of the prose is execrable ... I could say that it is a pity that Tony Blair did not employ a ghostwriter to prettify the prose and organise his recollections more elegantly." Rawnsley does, though, praise the book as being "a more honest political memoir than most and more open in many respects than I had anticipated." Mary Ann Sieghart
Mary Ann Sieghart
Mary Ann Sieghart is a former assistant editor of The Times, where she wrote columns about politics, social affairs and life generally. She now writes a weekly political column in The Independent and presents Profile and Beyond Westminster on Radio 4...
, writing for The Independent said, "whatever its faults, and toe-curling passages, [A Journey] has many good lessons on how to succeed in both opposition and government. The Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
, on the other hand, dismissed the book as "more Bridget Jones
Bridget Jones
Bridget Jones is a franchise based on the fictional character with the same name. English writer Helen Fielding started her Bridget Jones's Diary column in The Independent in 1995, chronicling the life of Bridget Jones as a thirtysomething single woman in London as she tries to make sense of life...
than Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
." Julian Glover, a columnist in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, said that "no political memoir has ever been like this: a book written as if in a dream—or a nightmare; a literary out-of-body experience. By turns honest, confused, memorable, boastful, fitfully endearing, important, lazy, shallow, rambling and intellectually correct, it scampers through the last two decades like a trashy airport read." Glover also criticises Blair's prose, but says that "you can't put it down." He adds, "At times its great flaws are magicked away by his brilliance as a politician, the man who can make you believe. Then, pages later, you feel almost sick. There are at least three gushing sexual passages, more Mills and Boon than prime ministerial memoir."
British journalist Toby Young
Toby Young
Toby Young, MA, FRSA is a British journalist and the author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, the tale of his stint in New York as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine...
, author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (memoir)
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is a memoir by Toby Young about his failed five-year effort to make it in the U.S. as a contributing editor at Condé Nast Publications' Vanity Fair magazine...
, a memoir charting his failed five-year effort to become a contributing editor at Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
magazine, said that A Journey read like the "latest salvo from Katie Price in her ongoing battle with Peter André
Peter André
Peter James Andrea , better known by the stage name as Peter Andre, is an English-born Australian musician, singer-songwriter, television personality and businessman. As a recording artist, he has achieving four top 10 UK albums and ten top 10 singles.-Early life:Andre was born at Northwick Park...
." Young said, "I was expecting some high-minded lessons in the art of statesmanship, not a series of jaw-dropping revelations about Gordon Brown. Reading these memoirs, you get the impression that Tony Blair’s visceral hatred of his chief rival has clouded his political judgment. Champagne corks will be popping in Downing Street tonight because A Journey does very little to enhance the reputation of either Blair or Brown." Anthony Seldon
Anthony Seldon
Dr. Anthony F. Seldon MA, PhD, FRSA, MBA, FRHistS is a political commentator best known as Tony Blair's biographer and the Master of Wellington College...
, author of a biography of Blair entitled Blair Unbound, said that the book "tells a lot." He told Sky News
Sky News
Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...
, "It could have been a much better book if he had reflected more and he needed to be more candid about the most controversial war that Britain has fought in decades, about why he didn't do more to prepare for the aftermath in Iraq." Political blog
Political blog
A political blog is a common type of blog that comments on politics. In liberal democracies the right to criticize the government without interference is considered an important element of free speech...
politics.co.uk described the book as "a rather clever bit of defensive rhetoric" which Blair uses to defend his decisions while in power. The article continued, however, to say the article is written in a different style to other political memoirs. "Reports that it was not ghost written must surely be true. You can almost hear him talking. Certain moments see his undoubted political genius translate into exquisite writing." The Oxonian Review
The Oxonian Review
The Oxonian Review is a literature and arts review journal produced by graduate students at the University of Oxford. Each week during term time, an online edition is published featuring reviews and essays on current affairs and literature...
regards the "folksy, well-paced, and at times cinematic" memoir as reflecting Blair's attempt to grasp for "an understanding of his political life, its evolution from fearful popularity to courageous ignominy." Writing in American magazine The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, British novelist John Lanchester
John Lanchester
John Henry Lanchester is a British journalist and novelist. He was born in Hamburg, brought up in Hong Kong and educated in England, at Gresham's School, Holt between 1972 and 1980 and St John's College, Oxford.-Works:...
said that the book was "a detailed account of scrambling, scraping, horse-trading, bluffing, and fudging the way to a deal—a remarkable combination of the ramshackle and the historic." The Sunday Telegraph was extremely critical of Blair's writing style. "If Blair wants to tell you a funny story, he makes the mistake of signalling in advance that you should be laughing—what happened was 'hilarious', his first weekend at Balmoral was 'utterly freaky'—thereby strangling the anecdote at birth. The book, like its author, is slightly embarrassing." However, the newspaper said that the book was "all a little sad," saying,
Other reaction
On 3 September 2010 The Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
reported that Elizabeth II felt a "profound sense of disappointment" in Blair for breaking with protocol by revealing in his memoirs sensitive details of private conversations he had with her during his time as Prime Minister. It is generally accepted that a Prime Minister does not discuss details of conversations he has with the Queen. A spokesman for Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
told the newspaper, "No prime minister before has ever done this and we can only hope that it will never happen again." On 5 September, The Sunday Express claimed, quoting "renowned Royal biographer Hugo Vickers" and other "Royal insiders", that due to the book's contents, Elizabeth II would withhold granting him the Order of the Thistle
Order of the Thistle
The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle is an order of chivalry associated with Scotland. The current version of the Order was founded in 1687 by King James VII of Scotland who asserted that he was reviving an earlier Order...
, an honour which is bestowed on the sovereign's personal prerogative, which is given almost automatically to leaders of Scottish descent after leaving office. On 3 September The Independent reported that Gordon Brown was said to be "seething" and "dismayed" over the criticism he received from Blair in the book, but had told aides not to criticise it. Ed Balls
Ed Balls
Edward Michael Balls, known as Ed Balls, is a British Labour politician, who has been a Member of Parliament since 2005, currently for Morley and Outwood, and is the current Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer....
, a Brown ally who served in his government
Brown Ministry
Gordon Brown took office as Prime Minister on 27 June 2007 and formed his Government. It ended, upon his resignation, on 11 May 2010. In his inaugural cabinet Brown appointed the UKs first female Home Secretary Jacqui Smith....
as Secretary of State for Children Schools and Families said, "It would have been much better if the memoirs had been a celebration of success rather than recriminations. In that sense I thought it was all a bit sad. It was so one-sided. I didn't think it was comradely."
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
minister Norman Tebbit
Norman Tebbit
Norman Beresford Tebbit, Baron Tebbit, CH, PC , is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet from 1981 to 1987 as Secretary of State for Employment...
wrote in The Daily Telegraph, "A Journey seems to be dominated by Blair's anxiety to be seen as a great political leader who changed his country for the better. In fact it is, as I suppose all such books are to some extent, entirely about justifying himself and blaming others." However, Tebbit admitted he had not read the book at the time of writing about it and bases his opinion on media coverage of its content. Writing in The Guardian, Alistair Darling
Alistair Darling
Alistair Maclean Darling is a Scottish Labour Party politician who has been a Member of Parliament since 1987, currently for Edinburgh South West. He served as the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2007 to 2010...
, who was Chancellor under Gordon Brown's government
Premiership of Gordon Brown
The Premiership of Gordon Brown began on 27 June 2007, when Brown accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government, replacing Tony Blair as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and ended with his resignation as Prime Minister on 11 May 2010...
, said that he "read with wry amusement how Tony Blair felt after much agonising that he couldn't sack his Chancellor. History has a habit of repeating itself." He concluded that the book was "a good read and shows us what can be done when we have confidence, clarity and a clear sense of purpose: we can win and change the country for the better." Labour MP Tom Harris said that the book "will be a reminder that opposition doesn't have to be permanent, and that great things can be accomplished by a Labour government, but only if we have a leader capable of appealing to voters beyond our own party's core." Of Blair, he said, "There are still many, many Labour Party members who remember Blair as an election-winning genius who, in office, was popular for an awful lot longer than he was unpopular." Ed Miliband
Ed Miliband
Edward Samuel Miliband is a British Labour Party politician, currently the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition...
, who was elected
Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 2010
The 2010 Labour Party leadership election was triggered by a general election which resulted in a hung parliament. On 10 May, Gordon Brown resigned as Leader of the Labour Party. The following day, he stepped down as Prime Minister....
as Leader of the Labour Party several weeks after the release of the book, said on the day of its publication,
Families of servicemen and servicewomen who were killed in Iraq reacted angrily to the book, in which Blair does not apologise for the invasion. "I can't regret the decision to go to war. I can say never did I guess the bloody, destructive and chaotic nightmare that unfolded—and that too is part of the responsibility," he says in the book. Reg Keys
Reg Keys
Reginald Thomas Keys, better known as Reg Keys , is the father of a British serviceman killed in the Iraq War. He stood in the 2005 General Election as an anti-war independent candidate for MP of Sedgefield, a constituency held by the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair.- Biography :Keys is a founder...
, whose son Tom Keys was killed in the country in 2005, said that the book was "just crocodile tears
Crocodile tears
Crocodile tears are a false or insincere display of emotion such as a hypocrite crying fake tears of grief. The phrase gives its name to crocodile tears syndrome, an uncommon consequence of recovery from Bell's palsy where faulty regeneration of the facial nerve causes sufferers to shed tears...
from Blair." Keys said, "The tears he claims to have shed are nothing like the tears I and my wife have shed for our son. They are nothing like the tears that tens of thousands of Iraqis have shed for their loved ones. They don't even come close to it. They seem to me like crocodile tears. It is a cynical attempt to sanitise his legacy." A spokesperson for Military Families Against the War
Military Families Against the War
Military Families Against the War is an organisation of families of servicemen in the United Kingdom created to campaign for British troops to be withdrawn from Iraq.The group's mission statement sets out their objectives as follows:...
said that Blair's expression of regret over the loss of life was "completely meaningless." The spokesperson added, "He has to prove his regret and giving money to charity doesn't come close. He is giving a miniscule amount compared to the cost of war and rehabilitation of injured soldiers. It is laughable."
Some of the dialogue Blair uses to describe his first meeting with Elizabeth II led to accusations of possible plagiarism from Peter Morgan
Peter Morgan (screenwriter)
Peter Morgan is an English film writer and playwright best known for writing the films and plays The Deal, The Queen, Frost/Nixon, and The Special Relationship.- Early life :...
, the screenwriter of the 2006 biopic The Queen
The Queen (film)
The Queen is a 2006 British drama film directed by Stephen Frears, written by Peter Morgan, and starring Helen Mirren as the title role, HM Queen Elizabeth II...
, which recounts events during the first few months of Blair's premiership. Blair recalls his first meeting with Elizabeth II in which she tells him, "You are my 10th prime minister. The first was Winston. That was before you were born." In the film, Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
's fictionalised Elizabeth II tells him, "You are my 10th prime minister, Mr. Blair. My first was Winston Churchill." Morgan told The Daily Telegraph on 8 September that he had imagined the dialogue for this conversation, as no record of conversations between a Monarch and a Prime Minister are kept. He said,