Diaries Volume One
  • Published: 1 March 2011
  • ISBN: 9780099493457
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 800
  • RRP: $36.99

Diaries Volume One

Prelude to Power

Formats & editions
EBook
1 Jul 2010
Paperback
1 Mar 2011
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The Blair Years was a taster. Prelude to Power reveals the diairies uncut. And it is just the beginning.

As Alastair Campbell said in the introduction to The Blair Years, it was always his intention to publish the full version, covering his time as spokesman and chief strategist to Tony Blair. Prelude to Power is the first of four volumes, and covers the early days of New Labour, culminating in their victory at the polls in 1997.

Volume 1 details the extraordinary tensions between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown as they resolved the question as to which one should stand to become Labour leader. It shows that right from the start, relations at the top were prone to enormous strain, suspicions and accusations of betrayal. Yet it also shows the political and personal bonds that tied them together, and which made them one of the most feared and respected electoral machines anywhere in the world.

A story of politics in the raw, Prelude to Power is above all an intimate, detailed portrait of the people who have done so much to shape modern history.
  • Published: 1 March 2011
  • ISBN: 9780099493457
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 800
  • RRP: $36.99
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About the author

Alastair Campbell

Alastair Campbell was born in Keighley, Yorkshire in 1957, the son of a vet. Having graduated from Cambridge University in modern languages, he went into journalism, principally with the Mirror Group. When Tony Blair became leader of the Labour Party, Campbell worked for him first as press secretary, then as official spokesman and director of communications and strategy from 1994 to 2003. He continued to act as an advisor to Mr Blair and the Labour Party, including during subsequent election campaigns. He now splits his time between writing, speaking, politics in Britain and overseas, consultancy and charity, as chairman of fundraising for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, and a leading ambassador for the mental health campaign Time to Change.

He lives in North London with his partner of thirty-five years, Fiona Millar. They have three children. His interests include running, cycling, bagpipes and Burnley Football Club. He has published six volumes of diaries, including the number one Sunday Times bestseller, The Blair Years, a memoir on depression, The Happy Depressive, and three novels.

portrait photo of Alastair Campbell

Also by Alastair Campbell

But What Can I Do?
Winners
My Name Is...
The Burden of Power
The Happy Depressive: In Pursuit of Personal and Political Happiness
Diaries Volume Three
Diaries Volume Two
See all

Praise for Diaries Volume One

Campbell is a compelling diarist ... The Campbell Diaries provide the fullest insider account so far of new Labour's ascent to power

The Times

Hugely gripping . . . all of human life is here. It makes The Thick of It look tame. And sane

Sunday Times

Campbell's world is the brutal, angry, hard-driven, jokey, football-crazed and intensely male world of tabloid journalism. He is a fluent and industrious reporter, with amazing stamina

The Telegraph

There are plenty of nuggets here that are fascinating, some passages that make you wince and others that are gripping. It has historical value

Observer

Campbell is a fluent and industrious reporter, with amazing stamina

Daily Telegraph

These diaries will be gasped at, and relied upon, for decades to come

The Times
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