Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Breaking the Code: Westminster Diaries
    Unavailable
    Breaking the Code: Westminster Diaries
    Unavailable
    Breaking the Code: Westminster Diaries
    Ebook930 pages16 hours

    Breaking the Code: Westminster Diaries

    By Gyles Brandreth

    5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    "Brandreth is the true Samuel Pepys of our day." Andrew Neil, BBC Radio Five Live "Brandreth, for my money, offers about the most honest, and the most amusing, account of the demented, beery futility of the Tory-ruled Commons in the 1990s." Boris Johnson, Daily Telegraph "Hilariously acute ... Irresistible." Matthew d'Ancona, Sunday Telegraph "Extremely touching ... Brandreth emerges as a decent, amusing, talented and charming man." Simon Heffer, Daily Mail "As a witty and insightful chronicler ... Brandreth is unsurpassed." Michael Simmons, The Spectator Gyles Brandreth's revealing journal paints an extraordinary portrait of Whitehall and Westminster in our time - warts and all. Brandreth - MP for Chester and government whip - enjoyed a ringside seat at the great political events of the 1990s, from the fall of Margaret Thatcher to the election of Tony Blair. With candid descriptions of the key figures of the era, from the leading players to the ministers who fell from grace, and a cast that includes the Queen, Bill Clinton and Joanna Lumley, these widely acclaimed diaries provide a fascinating insight into both the reality of modern government and the bizarre life of a parliamentary candidate and new MP. Controversially, Breaking the Code also contains the first ever insider's account of the hitherto secret world that is the Government Whips' Office. This new, complete edition features material previously excised for legal reasons, as well as additional diaries that take the story on another ten years to the departure of Tony Blair and the arrival as Tory leader of David Cameron - a bright young hopeful when Brandreth first meets him in 1993.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBiteback Publishing
    Release dateSep 29, 2014
    ISBN9781849548182
    Unavailable
    Breaking the Code: Westminster Diaries
    Author

    Gyles Brandreth

    Gyles Brandreth is a prominent BBC broadcaster, novelist, biographer, and a former Member of Parliament. He is also the author of the Oscar Wilde Mystery series. Find out more at GylesBrandreth.net.

    Read more from Gyles Brandreth

    Related to Breaking the Code

    Related ebooks

    Historical Biographies For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Chips, With Everything

      Oct 28, 2021

      Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries 1938-43 edited by Simon Heffer (Hutchinson, £35) Christopher Pincher is Minister of State for Housing DIARIES ARE CAPTIVATING, they tell us so much about so much. They magic up the mood behind the headlines of the t

      5 min read

    • Article

      World-class Snob, First-class Diarist

      Mar 25, 2021

      THE BEST DIARISTS ARE flawed individuals who exist on the fringe of great events and are natural observers and acerbic wits. Snobbery helps too. Think Samuel Pepys, James Boswell, Alan Clark. Henry “Chips” Channon (1897-1958) has long been seen as on

      5 min read

    • Article

      A Full Portion Of Chips

      Aug 25, 2021

      Both my grandfathers had nicknames. My father’s father, Henry Channon, was called Chips. It is a mystery why he was given this nickname. Did he once live with a Mr Fish at Oxford? Or was he the first person to introduce potato chips or crisps to Lond

      5 min read

    • Article

      Flying The Royal Nest

      Apr 15, 2021

      Flying The Royal Nest
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Style & Technique Of BEN MACINTYRE

      Mar 5, 2020

      ‘If you’re looking for a good spy thriller, I definitely recommend this,’ said a review in the Daily Express. The book was not an invented spy yarn, but a true story – Agent Zigzag. Fact can be stranger than fiction. Ben Macintyre, historian and Time

      6 min read

    • Article

      Break The News Cycle With Emily Maitlis

      Jul 18, 2023

      There are currently almost 2.6 million podcasts on Apple Podcasts – and yes, that’s shows, not episodes. So for one to break through all that noise, it has to be something pretty unique. Step forward The News Agents, which launched in August 2022. Ho

      4 min read

    • Article

      School For Future Tory Stars

      Oct 26, 2023

      School For Future Tory Stars
      7 min read

    • Article

      Politics

      Dec 17, 2021

      Politics
      3 min read

    • Article

      Behind Palace Doors

      Dec 21, 2023

      Behind Palace Doors
      5 min read

    • Article

      Hard Labour

      Sep 30, 2021

      AHUGE BEARDED MAN IS SLUMPED in a heap, deeply unconscious, on the floor of the telephone booth. The receiver swings to and fro above his head. Passers-by in the hotel corridor can hear an exasperated voice pleading from the earpiece “Hello! Hello! W

      9 min read

    • Article

      Perceptive, Witty And Sure Of Himself

      Apr 29, 2021

      In the Thick of It: The Private Diaries of a Minister by Alan Duncan HarperCollins, £25 THE MORNING I SUCCEEDED Sir Alan Duncan as Minister of State for Europe, I was ushered into his impressive former quarters at the Foreign Office, the sort of room

      5 min read

    • Article

      Sound And Fury

      Mar 12, 2023

      Whump. That’s the sound of somebody who has wilfully thrown himself down a rabbit hole. Wah, wah, wah. That’s the sound of somebody who, upon reaching the bottom of said hole, has discovered that it’s not much fun down there. And that you can’t get o

      4 min read

    • Article

      Why Labour Has The Best History Books

      Mar 28, 2024

      SOMEONE I KNEW BACK IN THE DAY once told me that when he left home he joined all three political parties: Labour because they had the best drugs, the Tories because they had the best women, and the Lib Dems for a night off. His point being, I guess,

      4 min read

    • Article

      Adam Macqueen

      Mar 5, 2020

      Adam Macqueen is a journalist and author who has contributed to Private Eye magazine since 1997 and wrote the history of the magazine to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2011. Between 1999-2002 he was deputy editor of The Big Issue. As an author his

      5 min read

    • Article

      Taking a Prattfall

      Aug 21, 2022

      Taking a Prattfall
      3 min read

    • Article

      Tama Muru

      Nov 10, 2019

      Tama Muru
      7 min read

    • Article

      Witty Repartee Still Features In Parliament. But Does It Persuade Anymore?

      Dec 7, 2018

      After watching the oratory in the British House of Commons, American congressional speechmaking seems like an inferior method of debate. But is Parliament truly as persuasive as it seems?

      4 min read

    Reviews for Breaking the Code

    5/5

    2 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Addictve! The man is an absolute genius!! A must read!!!