Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/A Journey

A Journey
This nomination predates the introduction in April 2014 of article-specific subpages for nominations and has been created from the edit history of Today's featured article/requests.


 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page. 

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/May 6, 2013 by BencherliteTalk 09:16, 3 May 2013‎ (UTC)



A Journey is a 2010 memoir by Tony Blair (pictured) discussing his tenure as leader of the British Labour Party (1994–2007), and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1997–2007). Under Blair's stewardship the party was rebranded as New Labour and secured a party record of three successive terms in office. Two of the book's major themes concern Blair's strained relationship with his Chancellor Gordon Brown, and his controversial decision to participate in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Blair discusses Labour's future after its defeat at the 2010 general election, his relations with the Royal Family, and how he came to respect President George W. Bush. A Journey received mixed reviews; some criticised Blair's writing style, but others called it candid. Financial Times editor Lionel Barber described it as "part psychodrama, part treatise on the frustrations of leadership in a modern democracy". Blair donated his £4.6 million advance, and all subsequent royalties, to the British Armed Forces charity The Royal British Legion. It became the fastest-selling autobiography of all time at the bookstore chain Waterstones, but promotional events were marked by antiwar protests.

This is my first attempt at nomination so apologies for any formatting errors. 1 pt for day, 60th anniversary of author's birth. Paul MacDermott (talk) (disclaimer) 13:18, 27 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Support, and I hope you don't mind me adding a picture.--Chimino (talk) 14:03, 27 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Not at all. A picture is a great idea. Paul MacDermott (talk) 14:09, 27 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Support. I think this actually comes to 3 points: 1 point for the date relevance, 1 point for Paul not having previously had a TFA (I assume - please correct me if that assumption's wrong) and 1 points for nothing similar in the last 3 months (the most recent autobiography article was on November 15, just under six months prior to this). Prioryman (talk) 14:10, 27 April 2013 (UTC)
 * I had Royal National College for the Blind featured a couple of years ago, although I took over the FA nomination for that from someone else. Paul MacDermott (talk) 14:13, 27 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Okay, I guess it's two points in that case. Prioryman (talk) 14:15, 27 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Support - It's an interesting choice to highlight someone's book who isn't a professional writer on their birthday. Judgesurreal777 (talk) 14:17, 27 April 2013 (UTC)
 * I did also think of May 1 to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the end of the 2003 invasion of Iraq (and the 16th of Blair's election to office), but as there are elections in the UK on May 2 this year I wasn't sure what the protocol is with that kind of scenario. That day is taken anyway, but May 6 seems to be the next most relevant date. Paul MacDermott (talk) 15:10, 27 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Support since I helped with this during the second peer review and it's always nice to something you contributed to even slightly get to the main page. Daniel Case (talk) 03:17, 28 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Support interesting topic and date connection, well written. I think the blurb has room for one sentence about the books critical reception. For the next nomination, please come a little sooner, - normally an article for 6 May should have been scheduled already, and a bit of time to read and improve an article would be nice, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:29, 29 April 2013 (UTC)
 * No probs, I'm getting the hang of it now. For the extra sentence how about "Critical reception was also divided" or "The book divided opinion among senior politicians" or "The book also divided political opinion". Paul MacDermott (talk) 12:17, 30 April 2013 (UTC)
 * How about the quote "part psychodrama, part treatise on the frustrations of leadership in a modern democracy" - we want to draw readers into clicking for more, right? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:02, 30 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes, I like that one. I've added it, but feel free to edit it if the piece is now too long. Paul MacDermott (talk) 13:07, 30 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you, I was going to do the same, because it may be scheduled any minute ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:10, 30 April 2013 (UTC)