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Johnson at 10 cover art

Johnson at 10

By: Anthony Seldon,Raymond Newell
Narrated by: Mark Elstob
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Summary

After his sudden rise to power in the summer of 2019 amid the Brexit deadlock, Boris Johnson presided over the most dramatic period of British history in almost a century. From the controversial prorogation of Parliament in August 2019 to the historic landslide victory later that year, the agonising upheaval of Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic—and the scandals unleashed by both—the Afghanistan crisis, and the conflict in Ukraine, Johnson's premiership was more turbulent than any other in living memory.

This gripping work of contemporary history maps Johnson's time in power across ten decisive moments and sheds light on the most divisive and inscrutable prime minister since Margaret Thatcher. Based on major interviews with key aides and allies, Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell give the first full account of Boris Johnson's explosive time in office.

©2023 Anthony Seldon (P)2023 Atlantic Books Ltd and W. F. Howes Ltd

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Well balanced account

I’ve read a number of political memoirs by Anthony Seldon and find his approach to his subject well balanced and supported by meticulous research and sources. This book is written in collaboration with Newell, also politically well informed and the result makes compelling listening or reading.

It’s difficult to understand, at times, how this self centred egomaniac ended up as Prime Minister. Until one realises that without exception, every prevarication and wavering was a means to ensure that his own needs came first. Never mind what may be good for the country or the people, as long as Boris got what he wanted.

I’ll be honest and say I’ve never taken to the man. The affable buffoon guise was unappealing and I always had serious doubts that he was capable of making balanced decisions based on facts and advice. It’s even worse than I thought. He’s undoubtedly very intelligent p, but that doesn’t make him a good leader. I was interested in his days as a journalist where he took delight in ‘lobbing virtual stones over the wall and hearing the glass shatter’. He was constantly taking a pop at conservatives, the EU and faceless beaurocats. He was fired from the Spectator and it seems many were pleased to see the back of him.

Politics needs innovators and lateral thinkers. There are better and different ways to do things and what I found really disappointing is that Boris never learned from any of his mistakes. I thought May was very generous to offer him the Foreign Secretary Post. According to this account, he welled up and promised to do his best. But he blew every opportunity and failed to take advantage of his role. He regularly showed little interest in issues and failed to grasp many of the key issues.

His current wife doesn’t come out if this particularly well, which is unsurprising. The two are probably made for each other with their egocentric worlds the only thing that matters. Borisworld must be a lonely place at times. He’ll drop people once they have no use for him and the loveable rogue persona wears very thin. Some of his outbursts are extraordinary and indeed frightening considering his position of ( then) power. All in all, this is a biography that doesn’t disappoint. Some real behind the scenes gems and I’m confident that every incident is well sourced. It’s a balanced account. The listener/reader is left to form their own judgement about this strange individual and hope he never returns to power. I guess he’ll be more interested in continuing to make mega money rather than play with politics. The narration throughout was excellent.

20 people found this helpful

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Informative

A great insight into a very shallow man completely unsuited to public life.
For a book about an Etonian Prime Minister, I think the narration is spot on.

10 people found this helpful

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Johnson has left the building

Excellent book and extremely well narrated, it explains in remarkable detail all of what many have been thinking especially his lazy slap dash ways.
I hope nobody like this passes through the door to number 10 again

7 people found this helpful

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Enjoyable yet horrifying

I enjoyed this book and thought the narration suited the subject. At times if it weren’t so serious it would have been funny, it out did “The Thick of It”
As for Johnson, no surprises, he really is as idiotic as he appears to be.

4 people found this helpful

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We knew it was bad but…..

Brilliant! Nails the whole sorry mess down. Brexit calamity: the hubris of a supreme egoist.

3 people found this helpful

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Good book but terrible narration

It's really hard to listen to a book when the narrator has such terrible pronunciation.
Parliament is pronounced as 'Parleement'
John Bercow is pronounced as John Ber-cow instead of Ber-coh
Evgeny (Lebedev) comes out as Ev-Jeanie, instead of Yiv-Genny

.... and I've barely started!

Surely someone should have checked the recording and caught the errors before publication?

3 people found this helpful

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Great book, awful narration.

A wonderful, sober account of a chaotic premiership.

But why the absurdly plummy narration? It's so pompous and self satisfied as to be nearly unlistenable. Sounds like Alan Partridge doing an impression of Lord Melchett from Blackadder.

The book is written in a humble, nuanced manner. It requires a delivery appropriate to this.

3 people found this helpful

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Excellent book but with so-so narration

The argument and analysis are convincing, the reading not so much. The reader has a pleasant tone, but does not recognise well-known names or phrases and manages to mangle them. On several occasion the sense of the sentence is lost too. But worth purchasing this title nonetheless.

2 people found this helpful

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A bit dull.....

This is a detailed and very well researched account of Boris' premiership and pulls him and his Government apart quite effectively. However, I found it less than gripping. Firstly the events are so fresh that most of it is boringly familiar. While the largely unattributed insider quotes may in some instances be insightful, the regime was so leaky that there were already plenty of first hand accounts in the public domain to reveal the awful dysfunctionality. My second issue is that the writing is wholly humourless - somewhat ironic given the subject - and in general the book is a bit self important with the authors appearing to have the objective of providing the definitive judgement. For example there are regular comparisons to former prime ministers sometimes from over a century ago. This may show great learning but does it really add? Finally, with the chapters addressing particular topics rather than having a narrative that just follows the timeline, there is a good deal of overlap which I found pretty tedious.

The funeral like tone of the narration does not help.

1 person found this helpful

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Narration is so off putting

The narration is just so off putting - I’m not sure if I’ll make it to the end!!

1 person found this helpful

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  • O. Buraimoh
  • 02-09-23

Excellent

An excellent, well researched, informative and thought provoking read. Another great book from the authors

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