It’s difficult to muster much excitement on opening the 4th volume of Alastair Campbell’s diaries, even more so when you realise that all 724 pages are devoted to less than two years of his life. Are the memoirs of Tony Blair’s press officer really so fascinating? Campbell originally condensed all four volumes into a single, 794-page book called The Blair Years and he might have done better to stop there.
Campbell’s justification for re-publishing his diaries is that, this time round, he’s able to reveal all sorts of embarrassing details that he couldn’t disclose in The Blair Years because it was published in 2007 when Labour was still in power. Loyalty to the party prevented him from being indiscreet back then, apparently, though quite why this loyalty should evaporate once the party has been turfed out of office is never explained. (To read more, click here.)
