Just Boris
Sonia Purnell
A major and controversial new biography of one of the most compelling and contradictory figures in modern British life.
Born Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, to most of us he is just ‘Boris’ – the only politician of the age to be regarded in such familiar, even affectionate terms. Uniquely, he combines comedy with erudition, gimleteyed focus with jokey self-deprecation, and is a loving family man with a roving eye. He is also a hugely ambitious figure with seemingly no huge ambitions to pursue – other than, perhaps, power itself.
One of the most private men in public life, we all know of Boris, but so few can truly claim to know him. He invites attention, but has evaded scrutiny. Now, from the vantage point of a once close colleague, Sonia Purnell charts his remarkable rise and offers the first forensic account of just how he did it.
Drawing on hundreds of interviews with Boris’s friends, rivals, admirers and enemies, this revealing biography examines how a shy, young boy from a broken home grew up to be our only box-office politician – and most unlikely sex god; how the Etonian product fond of Latin tags became a Man of the People – and why he wanted to be; how the gaffe-prone buffoon charmed Londoners to win the largest personal mandate Britain has ever seen; and how the Johnson family has built our biggest – not to mention blondest – media and political dynasty. At times, allegations of infidelity, journalistic chicanery, rivalries with fellow Tories and scandal at City Hall have threatened to upset his rise, but still it continues.
With his unruly mop of hair, trusty bicycle and the surest of popular touches, he remains a Teflon-coated breed apart – but for how long? In Just Boris Sonia Purnell unravels this most compelling of political enigmas and casts light on his record and his character. Finally, she asks whether the Mayor who dreams of crossing the Thames to Downing Street has what it takes to be Prime Minister.
After I had lost count of the number of people who work for Boris Johnson who told me that this book was “utter rubbish” and that I must “simply just not read it” I knew that I just had to get my hands on a copy. The quote from Michael Crick on the back of the hardcover edition I think sums this biography up perfectly: ‘Sonia Purnell must have had huge fun writing this wonderful book. The only person who won’t be amused is Boris himself.’
I am no stranger to the political biography, and while many of them I struggle to get through at some points, this was wonderfully written and was funny and engaging so I had no problems reading it over a couple of days while I was on holiday. I also learnt a lot I did not know, as some of the bits of Boris Johnson’s life that have not been well catalogued by either the tabloid press or by documentaries such as Channel 4′s When Boris Met Dave - though I’m not entirely sure of where all the bias falls in this book, so as with any politically charged text I made sure I took everything I read with a pinch of salt!
I think this book is great if you enjoy reading biographies of interesting figures (London’s bumbling mayor definitely falls into that category), but I think parts of the book might be better suited to fans of political and hisotrical biographies; some of the chapters can drag on a bit because they are rather intricate and policy heavy, for example catalogying Boris’ time as The Telegraph‘s Europe correspondent in Brussels and his first few years in City Hall.
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