The Point of Departure - Softcover

Robin-cook

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743257235 ISBN 13: 9780743257237

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd, 2003

Synopsis

Point of Departure is Robin Cook's unvarnished account of the build-up to and the consequences of the second gulf war, as well as a broader look at the Blair government since its re-election in 2001: its increased alliance to right-wing figures such as George W Bush; its erosion of Cabinet government; its failure to use two record majorities to create a progressive leadership on social change.

No-one is better placed than Robin Cook to write about this recent extraordinary period in our political history. Drawing on his first-hand experiences of the Commons and the Cabinet, Robin Cook mixes forensic analysis with a fresh and intimate narrative to explosive effect. The first inside account of the Blair government from a genuine political heavyweight, Point of Departure has already been heralded as one of the most incendiary political memoirs for decades.

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Review

This book is great fun to read. It has the authentic touch of both the great and the trivial issues that dominate the daily life and the grind of ministers in any government" Guardian 'Robin Cook's Point of Departure provides the best insight yet into the workings of the Blair cabinet. His diary entries are highly readable, and sometimes very funny' Elinor Goodman, Books of the Year, Sunday Telegraph 30/11 'Cook does not accuse Blair of deliberate deception. Cook's restraint makes an even more damning case. He guides the reader towards a devastating guilty verdict on the Prime Minister without making too many sweeping judgments himself. While narrating a tragic and humiliating failure in foreign policy, Cook also manages to be very funny' Independent on Sunday, Political Books of the Year 14/12 'Instant history can tell us how events appeared before they became obscured in the fog of hindsight. For hindsight is the great enemy of the historian. We forget, all too easily, that what is now in the past once lay in the future. Instant history, especially when, as with Robin Cook's Point of Departure, it is based on the diary of a participant, is history written when the outcome was still unknown' FT, UK Politics 'The best-written and most thoroughly researched of the post-election batch of cabinet biographies,' Peter Kellner, Evening Standard. 'This thoroughly researched and well-crafted biography has both revelations and insights to offer about the life of one of the most intriguing members of this government,' Andrew Rawnsley, Observer 'An admirable instant biography, taking in all its subject's trials and tribulations since he came to office,' Anthony Howard's political books of the year, 1998, Sunday Times "Devastating on how Blair found himself taking Britain to war in the shadow of President Bush, after 'grossly distorting', in Cook's phrase, the threat of Saddam's weapon's to the world" Sunday Times 29/8

About the Author

Robin Cook was appointed Leader of the House of Commons and President of the Council in June 2002. He held a number of senior positions in Opposition - Shadow Foreign Secretary, Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary, Shadow Health Secretary and Social Services Secretary - before becoming Foreign Secretary from 1997 until 2001

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0743257235
• ISBN 13: 9780743257237
• Binding: Paperback