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A Good Political Read

Those of you who know me well will recognise that I have strong political views which don’t often overlap with the British Conservative party. That being said, even at the height of the Thatcher years, I always had a sneaking regard for the MP for our University town of Bath. That regard grew enormously when I read Chris Patten’s book, Not Quite the Diplomat.

Part political biography and part review of the current world order this book couples keen insight with a wonderful self depricating humour. In a career which includes time as an MP, a stint as the last Governor-General of Hong Kong and a period in the European Comission, Patten has met most of the key world leaders of our time and been invovled in many of the major world events. Perhaps the best bit about the book are the pen portraits of the different world leaders he has met. Here are a couple of good examples:

Observing President Chirac provided hours of innocent entertainment; he is to body language what Shakespeare is to the spoken word. Like President Mitterand before him, he usually made a point of arriving late, surrounded by saturnine courtiers… Part emporer, part ham.

Mr. Blair… a usually likeable man, has convictions which he holds strongly – while he holds them.

If you are interested in getting hold of this book, there is a link to the Amazon site in our library.