Customer Reviews

Political Animal

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A delightful, sharp book full of wisdom and cynicism on British political life. Paxman gives proper criticism but healthy doses of understanding and respect to MPs both past and present, PMs to backbenchers.
Upon first coming upon a Conservative MP at a speech as a school boy to seeing Tony Blair roll to a 2nd landslide, Paxo's musings are prescient and interesting. Unlike most British political commentary, he really delves into the minutia of life between Yea and Nea lobbies of the Commons and the vague absurdities, idignities and also triumphs of dealing with and campaigning in one's constituency.
Through no fault of his own, a defiency in the book is that its outlook predates the Iraq invasion when Blair's popularity really began to drop and his moral authority dramatically suffered. The vantage point is not as dark and the-sky-is-falling as public outlook is on foreign policy, at this writing, at the close of the Blair Years. But perhaps Paxo would not be so influenced by such public perceptions.
He draws great rememberances of politicians of a rhetorical past we've not seen, hardly remembered and rarely appreciated. Also, Paxman successfully resists political platitudes and a book that begins with questions pleasantly ends with probably more of them, not less.
For those looking for some kind of literary version of his hard-hitting interviewing on Newsnight, they will be disappointed. Though I love that style, here is something far more illuminating and far more edifying.