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A Journey

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A Journey

By: Tony Blair
Narrated by: Tony Blair
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In 1997, Tony Blair won the biggest Labour victory in history to sweep the party to power and end 18 years of Conservative government. He has been one of the most dynamic leaders of modern times; few British prime ministers have shaped the nation's course as profoundly as Blair during his ten years in power, and his achievements and his legacy will be debated for years to come. Now his memoirs reveal in intimate detail this unique political and personal journey, providing an insight into the man, the politician and the statesman, and charting successes, controversies and disappointments with an extraordinary candour. The Journey will prove essential and compulsive reading for anyone who wants to understand the complexities of our global world. As an account of the nature and uses of power, it will also have a readership that extends well beyond politics, to all those who want to understand the challenges of leadership today. Elections & Political Process Europe Great Britain Politics & Activism Politics & Government Presidents & Heads of State Middle East England War Africa Inspiring Iran Thought-Provoking Imperialism Leadership Military United Kingdom Government Socialism Middle Ages Royalty Capitalism
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What a mixture in this book! Just about everyone is agreed on that.

The well-documented flaws are impossible to ignore. In particular, the frequently inappropriately colloquial style - how is that going to read in 10 or 20 years? - and the almost disarmingly omnipresent ego - he says at one point, about something which was really a matter of opinion, 'I thought I was right, and I was' - that seems typical! As for the abysmal depths of his relationship with Gordon Brown, they are almost impossible to credit. However, the editing for the audio editions has left out some of the worst horrors - apparently, notes re lavatory time and others - so listeners have an advantage over readers in that respect.

It is well worth tolerating these drawbacks in order to enjoy the many advantages of the book. Insight into many of the key events of recent history, of course; the chance to hear Tony Blair's account of them and to re-evaluate his character, as one would expect. Along with those, several moments of high comedy - the first weekend at Balmoral, and even a moment of confusion in the Good Friday negotiations reduced me to unexpected stitches of laughter; and a wealth of details about the subsidiary characters and events which are most enjoyable in themselves. The book gathers pace in a very satisfying manner, and it is noticeable that, when he discusses Iraq, the tone becomes more serious and less grating. At the end, you may well feel that, despite the sincerity and honesty of his tone in the major parts of the book, the real Tony Blair remains an enigma; but you will have enjoyed listening to his journey and coming to your conclusion.

flawed, but fascinating

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However interesting this book is for the events to which it gives us an inside look, there were a few things I couldn't get past.
The first and most obvious is the monotonous way in which the author reads the book. I always thought Tony Blair was a great speaker, but this is something that apparently should be left to a professional. It's one big drone that made me use this audiobook mostly as a means to falling asleep when I couldn't.

From everything I did still hear (I would go back to what I'd heard before falling asleep), the most obvious to me was the complete lack of distance to himself and any criticism towards himself. Even with all the things he admits you can think differently about, it's very obvious that to him you are a fool if you do.
Wars to Tony Blair are completely justified for the sole reason that he believes them to be justified. Of course it's sad that lives are lost, but Tony Blair needs to put the world to rights.
I could give more examples, but I think I've made my point.

I've always been a big fan of Tony Blair's, but I think he's been in power for too long and has lost all sense of perspective. I'm still giving this book 3 stars because of this wonderful insight it's given me not only into all the book tells of, but also into the dangers of too much power with one man for too long...

Narcissistic to the extreme

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Whatever your politics and even if you hate Tony Blair you would be re-miss if you have rounded debates in not listening to his perspective attempting understanding why he rightly or wrongly made the decissions he did.
I listened to this trying to understand why this country is in the position it is now. It may not have given me all of the answers but it's much less clear cut to just blame Tony blindly he made difficult decissions and this is an account of why, it is undoubtly prejudiced from his perspective, yet it is fascinating.
In terms of the narration it takes a bit of getting used to, its very stilted and anxious but after a while he either calms down in the reading or it just stopped bothering me.

Excellent, whatever your politics

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The book is good and gives an insight into a deeply flawed person. His ego is all over the place and very rarely does he admit he was wrong.

Excellent book from a deeply flawed egomaniac

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I loved this.I expected to have to suffer through the boring bits to get to the good bits but there are no bad bits.Its a very honest book and he seems to be earnestly trying to learn lessons and take meaning from all the events of the 10 years .There is no smugness nor any false modesty.
As an audio book it was interesting to hear the emotion in his voice (for example the David Kelly incident) and the relief when he moves onto a new chapter ,literally!
There are also a lot of musings on the role of the media and who actually creates spin which have put me thinking and more than a few life lessons which are worth thinking about.
So yes as a neutral on Blair I loved it.

Brilliant

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