Boris Johnson: The Gambler

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Bowers's biography of Simon Cowell, written with Cowell's co-operation, was published on 20 April, 2012. It’s very rare that I find a biography so hard to put down that I put away 300 pages in one weekend, but this one hit the spot! Mais le plus captivant est sans doute la narration de l’incroyable, l’infaisable mise en œuvre et succès final du Brexit, que, semble-t-il, lui seul, pouvait mener à bout. The clue is Bower’s use of the subject’s preferred mononym - even Charles Moore never refers to Mrs Thatcher as ‘Maggie’. Bower suggests that Stanley’s mistreatment of Boris’s mother, Charlotte, is the defining secret of the Johnson family and the fact that Boris, as the oldest child, witnessed it is the key to understanding his character, including his rampant ambition.

Sadly in Boris' case, the Churchillian moment arrived, and he has through his weak attention to detail, autocratic leadership style, promotion of 'yes men', poor organisational skills, 'gung ho' approach, libertarianism, and his need to be loved and admired by all, allowed the UK to fall into it's greatest peace time crisis. In a statement that neatly encapsulates the ethos of the post-truth era that Johnson’s spell in Brussels anticipated, Telegraph executive Jeremy Deedes insists his correspondent might have been “exaggerating but it was all too good to check. If the first half dozen chapters about Johnson's childhood and schooldays are interesting, it's significant that the last quarter of the book is devoted to a hurried effort to prove that Johnson didn't mishandle the first few months of Covid and that he had in fact been let down by the scientists and civil servants.Every chance he gets he’s slipping in snide descriptions of Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs from declaring the women as ‘shrill’ to affording them the benefit of absolutely no doubt while brushing over Johnson’s own numerous sins and clearly idolising the man’s shameless steamrolling over every rule put in place to allow for a democratic dynamic in Westminster. Unfortunately, however, as it progresses it becomes more rushed and less well-structured, and the final few chapters almost completely ignore Brexit at the expense of a very generalist account of the battle against Covid.

To escape confiscatory taxation and punitive state control, the most talented of Britain’s wealth creators had fled abroad to earn their fortunes. Having read some of Tom Bower’s previous books and been impressed by his thoroughness and writing style – particularly his forensic description of the financial and business affairs of Robert Maxwell – I had high hopes for this account of Boris Johnson. He takes no interest in his children’s upbringing, except to communicate a couple of life lessons: “If you’re working hard, don’t show it … show effortless superiority”; and “Nothing matters very much and most things don’t matter at all. That said, I have enjoyed some conservative commentators’ bewilderment at yesterday’s budget, but cakeism will inevitably turn into no treats for anyone unless he gets a grip.Apart from the first chapters, this is a tedious book - chapter after chapter of excusing the failings, chapter after chapter with no constructive analysis or ability to recognise Johnson for what he is, lazy, a man with no vision or insight, an English Nationalist, privileged, seeing himself as naturally part of England's social elite yet . Equally the northern powerhouse and levelling up remain warm words but little has yet emerged as to how these will be delivered.