Talk:A Journey/Archive 1

Reception
A few quotes ready for a reception section.

Financial Times
"Tony Blair’s memoir is part psychodrama, part treatise on the frustrations of leadership in a modern democracy. It is written in a chummy style with touches of Mills & Boon."


 * Lionel Barber, Financial Times

"Blair comes across as likable, if manipulative; capable of dissembling while wonderfully fluent; in short, a brilliant modern politician (whatever his moans about the media)."


 * Lionel Barber, Financial Times

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The Observer
"It is Tony Blair's boast that he wrote every word in longhand "on hundreds of notepads". That I believe. He was the most brilliant communicator of his era as a platform speaker or television interviewee, but he can be a ghastly writer. Anyone thinking about taking this journey needs to be given a travel advisory: much of the prose is execrable."


 * Andrew Rawnsley, The Observer

"No cliche is avoided. Loins are girded, leashes are strained at, die are cast, lights appear at the end of tunnels and wounds are rubbed with salt. The Vatican is "an amazing place". Princess Anne "is a chip right off the old man's block". Princess Diana "captured the essence of an era". Derry Irvine is "like the proverbial dog with the bone". Many of the chapters are as badly planned as the invasion of Iraq."


 * Andrew Rawnsley, The Observer

"I could say that it is a pity that Tony Blair did not employ a ghostwriter to prettify the prose and organise his recollections more elegantly. I could observe that he is straining after the faux-intimate style of the autobiographies of footballers or models, and that was only to be expected from the politician who turned himself into Britain's first celebrity prime minister."

Andrew Rawnsley, The Observer

"[T]his is a more honest political memoir than most and more open in many respects than I had anticipated."


 * Andrew Rawnslty, The Observer

"Banalities tumble across these pages, but there are also thoughtful and significant meditations about modern politics."


 * Andrew Rawnsley, The Observer

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Daily Mail
"More Bridget Jones than Henry Kissinger."


 * Daily Mail

Source:

Independent on Sunday
"Tony Blair's 'A Journey' is a revelatory book in many ways, offering a glimpse into the mind of a political leader during tumultuous times. Of course, it is a document designed for history, which, Blair hopes, will provide some personal context to much of the political decision-making during his time in office. But it is much more than that; it is sufficiently candid and detailed to give us some insight into the man's underlying psychology, and sometimes it is the smallest detail that can be the most interesting."


 * Geoffrey Beattie, Independent on Sunday

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Comments
Are you going to include these fascinating quotations and analyses to the article? I think that would be useful. ValenShephard (talk) 14:59, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
 * That's the plan. I'm collecting them together first so it'll be easier to actually write the section. TheRetroGuy (talk) 15:11, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Good to hear, that will be very useful for the article. I could help you put some of them in later if you want. Keep it up, ValenShephard (talk) 16:58, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks, that would be great. I'm hoping to get this up to GA or even FA status eventually so any help you can give in improving it would be much appreciated. I've made a start at adding some stuff, but I think it will probably need a bit more work doing on it. Please feel free to review and change anything you feel doesn't sound right, and by all means add any more quotes you can find. There's a lot of stuff out there about this. Cheers TheRetroGuy (talk) 17:04, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Drop me a line on my talk page if you have stuff here that needs adding and improving, so we can delegate. I'm busy on a few big pages so I won't always be able to check back here. So drop me a line about whats happening here. From what I have read and seen myself, the book has gotten mostly mixed to negative reviews, what do you think? If that is true, we should aim to give proper weight in the analysis of the book. Best wishes, ValenShephard (talk) 20:02, 6 September 2010 (UTC)
 * It does seem to be getting more negative than positive reviews, I must admit. Not only in the media, but also (reportedly) from some of those who Blair mentions. I'll try to add a bit more and keep you posted on what's going on. Cheers TheRetroGuy (talk) 22:05, 6 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks, its just in the interest of due weight to different viewpoints. If time goes on and it is proven that most reviews are negative, or swinging to the negative, we should reflect that here. ValenShephard (talk) 22:38, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Some more reviews

 * The New Yorker
 * Norman Tebbit writing in The Telegraph
 * Mary Ann Sieghart writing in the Independent
 * Gordon Brown 'seething' but plans no retaliation over Tony Blair's memoirs, Belfast Telegraph, 3 September 2010
 * 'Seething' Brown claims moral high ground – but will not attack his old ally, The Independent, 3 September 2010
 * The Journey of 'A Journey': UK Reactions to Tony Blair's Memoir, The Atlantic, 13 September 2010

Balancing the Brown part of the synopsis
If anyone has the book, can you please add some of the nice things he actually said about Brown - he did say some, or so he has said on television, and as the current synopis is pretty one sided, I think it needs balancing. He definitely credits him with being a good chancellor and a committed public servant, as well as iirc he is maybe still friendly with him?. Anyway, that was all I could remember, but I don't want to start detailing it without the book to hand.
 * That rather negative synopsis is what has been reported as far as I have seen, but yeah, if he did say some good things they could probably go in. But if he was mostly negative to Brown, we have to show that as part of due weight. Not try to 'balance it out' or something. ValenShephard (talk) 12:46, 7 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I've added a sentence about the positive things he said about Brown. I think perhaps we could say something like that overall he is negative about Brown, but praises him as a good chancellor and committed public servant. I'm sure Blair probably thought he had other good qualities too, although that'll have to wait till someone who's read the book drops by here. As I learnt from working on the Premiership of Gordon Brown article, there seems to be more negative than positive stuff written about him by the media - not all of it entirely fair in my opinion - so that trend probably continues. TheRetroGuy (talk) 16:48, 7 September 2010 (UTC)


 * To be clear, I'm not talking about his media perception, or even the media coverage of the book - I'm talking about the actual synopsis section, which should only reflect the actual balance of the book. And like I said, from what he has said on TV, he suggested he wasn't totally critical of Brown in the book, as the previous version suggested. MickMacNee (talk) 18:35, 7 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Ironically, I had it in my hands today, but I only had time to peruse the rather large number of pictures it includes. MickMacNee (talk) 18:42, 7 September 2010 (UTC)

DYK entry
I've submitted the article to DYK as it has been expanded sufficiently in the last few days to qualify (see here). Please feel free to suggest a more interesting alternative. Cheers TheRetroGuy (talk) 21:50, 7 September 2010 (UTC)

Spending Review Of 2005 That Never Happened
During the Andrew Marr interview that coincided with the book launch, Tony Blair stated that he thought that a spending review was needed in 2005, but that he was unable to start one because Gordon Brown was politically too strong. Is this discussed in the book? If so, then it is dynamite - the deficit is going to be a major issue for years to come - and it would certainly be worth mentioning in the article. New Thought (talk) 14:51, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
 * I agree it should go in if it is mentioned. I still haven't read the book yet. Unfortunately, I'm still on my local library's waiting list. Providing my local library doesn't fall victim to the Tory spending cuts I should get to the top eventually. In the meantime, if anyone has read the book and wants to add information, page references, etc, to the article, please feel free to contribute. Cheers TheRetroGuy (talk) 17:01, 19 October 2010 (UTC)