We couldn't resist this book. Try to imagine if Lord Baden Powell (author of 'Adventuring to Manhood') worked with Enid Blyton (The Famous Five) to write a book set in a fictional school that looks alarmingly like the Houses of Parliament. Suspend disbelief, crack open lashings of ginger beer and settle down to follow the rise and demise of 'Anthony Blair - Captain of School.' This title is also available as an Audiobook in CD format. Click here to find out more.
Anthony Blair’s dear old mater always said he was ‘good at making things up’. As a new boy at St Stephen’s College, he learns the ropes from his dour Scottish study companion Brown. Popular and polite, he charms everyone including Matron Boothroyd and the school porter’s stepdaughter Cherie. Thanks to a tragic incident with a runaway horse and the help of his loyal toast fag Peter, he becomes captain of school. Anthony mingles with the local aristocracy and survives an embarrassing day out foxhunting. There are dark encounters with Fenians and a suspected Russian anarchist. But triumph turns to disaster when “Sooty†Blair and the Bible-quoting headmaster Dr Bush send the College Rifle Corps into the slum district of Mesopotamia.
This brilliantly recreated Edwardian six-shilling novel, with a strangely familiar cast of characters, moves deftly between the comedy of Adrian Mole and the biting satire of Animal Farm. Delightfully illustrated by David Alan Hopkins, it is the only book you will ever need to read to understand Tony Blair.
"Charles Dickens's Steerforth meets Enid Blyton's Julian half way – about 1910 – and the product bears an uncanny resemblance to someone we all know. Columnists may rage and psychobiographers babble, but in one neat, beguiling and funny little satire, John Morrison has said it all." — Matthew Parris
"The Prime Minister and his chums have fallen victim to a merciless new satire that transports him from the comfy sofas of Downing Street to the gloomy corridors of an Edwardian boarding institution." The Independent on Sunday http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/news/article310180.ece
“No healthier book for boys can be imagined.†– Colonel R. Baden-Powell
“Women will learn a lot about men from this book.†– Mrs Silvia Pankhurst
“An uncanny prediction of the future.†– Mr H.G. Wells
Author
About John Morrison
After a long career as a foreign correspondent in Russia, Europe and Africa, John Morrison spent two years reporting at Westminster for Reuters and travelled with Tony Blair to China, Japan and the United States. His 1991 biography of Boris Yeltsin was translated into several languages and in 2001 he published Reforming Britain, an analysis of constitutional reform under Labour. He is now an independent author, playwright and publisher. Anthony Blair Captain of School is his first novel.
