Alastair Campbell Diaries Volume 8: Rise & Fall of the Olympic Spirit 2010-15 (Was £25 Now £9.99)

Published: February 11 2021
Hardback

I hadn’t seen much of the Cameron stuff last night so caught up with it this morning. I felt he did OK, but no better. Paddy Ashdown called, said that he was really sad we had not been able to pull off a Lib–Lab deal, but Clegg had decided early on. The Adam Boulton row had cut through big time, people asking me about it everywhere I went. I watched a bit of the Cameron–Clegg press conference in the No. 10 garden, but once the Beeb started saying there was birdsong in the garden I had had enough. I was worrying depression was going to set in pretty soon. It almost certainly would.

This latest volume of Campbell’s acclaimed diaries sees the author, and the country, at a profound crossroads. Brown is finally gone, and Cameron is in the ascendancy – with a little help from the Liberal Democrats. Somehow Campbell must emerge from the ruins and grapple with his own future; just as Britain begins its own journey into austerity and, eventually, to Brexit. Volume 8 contains some of Campbell’s most poignant and thought-provoking writing so far and is a must-read for fans of this most accomplished of political diarists.