Alastair's Blog

Italian newspaper La Repubblica interviewed me on the TB book yesterday. It runs in today’s paper. English version below in full

I’ve always had a bit more time for William Hague than some of the other Tory leaders TB saw off during his leadership of the Labour Party. John Major could never forgive Tony for beating him and likes to think it was all done by spin rather than a leader of real drive and substance; Michael [...]

Fair play to Andrew Marr for giving a more rounded view of Tony Blair’s book than will come over from the screaming headlines. What is coming through from the small number of people who have actually read the book is a sense of its richness, its capacity to surprise, its candour and breadth. Though A [...]

Every British Prime Minister I can think of has written his or (in one case only) her memoirs. None have provoked quite the pre-publication antagonism generated in advance of Tony Blair’s autobiography, A Journey, which is out tomorrow. Stand back from the venom for one moment, and ask yourself: would it not be rather odd [...]

The coalition are doing things for which they have no mandate. Scrapping NHS Direct is the latest. They are getting away with it for now, but with proper argument and campaigning, this and other decisions will hurt them later in this Parliament.

Cameron reportedly wants Ed Miliband as Labour leader. Black propaganda, or a genuine view born of thinking the situation through? I think the latter

When it comes to reporting exam results, editors do not let the facts get in the way of stories to justify their own (private) choices. But the truth is State schools are improving and private schools, despite the massive advantages, are not.

After a few blog-free weeks, welcome to my new site, which I hope you like; and many thanks to the French health service for looking after my daughter – and that includes those much-maligned managers!

In the run-up to the election we sold several hundred signed copies of The Blair Years via the website, with half the proceeds going to the Labour Party. Now I want to do something similar with my first novel, All In The Mind, about a psychiatrist and his patients. But this time the proceeds are [...]

Greetings from Lake Megunticook. Those of you who read my second novel, Maya, may have heard of it. It is the place in Maine, New England, where the narrator, Steve, came to write the story of his friendship with Maya. In a piece of detail, I (or Steve) described how youngsters leapt from a 60 [...]