First Confession
  • Published: 29 May 2017
  • ISBN: 9780241275603
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288

First Confession

A Sort of Memoir

Formats & editions
EBook
29 May 2017
Paperback
2 Jul 2018
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The first full memoir by the best-selling author and the best politician-writer since Alan Clark

Chris Patten was a cradle Catholic (hence First Confession), became on the most prominent Tory 'Wets' of the 1980s and 1990s, and went on to hold a series of prominent public offices - Chairman of the Conservative Party, the last Governor of Hong Kong, European Commissioner for External Affairs, Chancellor of Oxford University, Chairman of the BBC, advisor to the Pope - as he self-deprecatingly puts it 'a Grand Poo-bah, the Lord High Everything Else'. He writes with wry humour about his time in all these offices, taking us behind the scenes and showing us unexpected sides of many of the great figures of the day. No political writer is so purely enjoyable as Chris Patten.
  • Published: 29 May 2017
  • ISBN: 9780241275603
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288
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About the author

Chris Patten

Chris Patten is Chancellor of Oxford University. When MP for Bath (1979-92) he served as Minister for Overseas Development, Secretary of State for the Environment and Chairman of the Conservative Party. He was Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 until 1997 and European Commissioner for External Relations from 1999 until 2004. The Observer has described him as 'the best Tory Prime Minister we never had'.

Also by Chris Patten

The Hong Kong Diaries
Black Hat Go
What Next?
Not Quite the Diplomat
See all

Praise for First Confession

Draws on his experience of four controversial institutions - the Tory party, the Vatican, the Chinese government and the BBC - to swell the tiny list of intelligent and cultured memoirs by front-line politicians

Mark Lawson, New Statesman, Books of the Year

A defence of liberal conservatism ... If old-style centrism is to stage a comeback and reason to supplant stridency and authoritarianism, be it in west or east, the moderates can wave Patten's book on their way to their barricades

Jonathan Fenby, Financial Times

Engagingly frank, beefily pugnacious ... ... he writes stirringly

John Preston, Sunday Telegraph

Vivid, very well-written, First Confession joins the highest tier of recent works by British politicians

Paschal Donohoe, Irish Times