DC Confidential: THE CONTROVERSIAL MEMOIRS OF BRITAIN'S AMBASSADOR AT THE TIME OF 9/11 AND THE RUN-UP TO THE IRAQ WAR: The Controversial Memoirs of Britain's ... Time of 9/11 and the Run-up to the Iraq War

I am impressed with Christopher Meyer's bluntness on TV after leaving his diplomatic post for the Press Complaints Commission. I expected similar directness in this book but was disappointed. He is frank enough about his feelings about T Blair and clearly doesn't rate his deputy, John Prescott. What was lacking was an incisive critique of the performance of leading Americans at two periods of unique importance. He paints GW Bush in a kindly light but I wanted more insight to the qualities and abilities of those running the most powerful country in the world. It seems most achievements in diplomacy land are made over grand dinners and there are numerous but disappointingly superfical accounts of this dinner and that drinks party. Where is the meat?, I ask. What is so confidential?? In short, a worthwhile book but it could have been so much more.

Bill Bryson joined the FCO (2/2 people found this helpful)

Don't let the cover deceive you, this is not a book especially concerned with telling a tale about the inner thoughts of the Blair government in the run up to the invasion of Iraq and it's seemingly vain attempts to influence Bush Jr''s decisions. Instead, it is as the category says, memoirs, going all the back to the 1960's when Meyer joined the diplomatic corps. You will find no insightlful analysis of the war or stark protrayal of the way the information was presented to the public but rather a Bill Bryson like read full of ammusing anecdotes of the DC political circuit, my favorite of which is Don Rumsfeld paralysed in a river raft for three days next to a large box of excrement (I'll let you decide on the relation there). I suspect the FCO regarded this book as an 'unacceptable breach of trust' because it describes the kind of toadying flunkies so often seen in governments these days as they really are, as immoral and odius creatures of less than high honour, not becuase there are any great secrets revealed in this book, because there are none. According to the author, most of the secrets he had access to ended up leaked to the press anyway and he complains often that none of his cables on the thoughts of the US adminstration were read by anyone, causing continual stupid questions from those who ought to know better (maybe another 'breach of trust there'). In short, anecdotal and light entertainment, not heavy analysis. If like me, you were after that, chose something else.

Not as interesting as it should have been. (3/4 people found this helpful)

Meyer spends so much time burbling on about his wife's battles to get access to her children (which is obviously very sad but not particularly relevant to a book about UK/US relations) fans of political memoirs might find their interest waning during some of the books chapters. The book is reasonable enough - Meyer has held a few interesting jobs in his time, including being press secretary to former Prime Minister John Major and then of course, US Ambassador. Both of these periods throw up a few amusing anecdotes, but one can't help feeling, especially during the 9/11 and Iraq War chapters, that Meyer wasn't half as important to the US/UK relationship as he seems to think he was. His political bias is apparent throughout - he is a Conservative - and this of course is fair enough. However his (often unfavourable) depiction of Tony Blair, Jack Straw and others doesn't carry as much weight when you realise he has a political axe to grind.

Worth reading (4/7 people found this helpful)

This book isn't that good at all, but you have to read it to see how stupid some of our senior UK politicians have been when using whatever power or leverage they have over Bush. I am constantly surprised how amatuer our guys were compared to the American heavyweights.

When I Ran The World (14/18 people found this helpful)

Having read a lot of political memoirs, I started this book expected the author to be unreserved in praise for his own abilities - as most politicians are - but I was hoping that in between all that, there would also be some insights into how Washington worked. Well, I wasn't wrong about the arrogance of the author, but I was disappointed by the lack of insights he had. He mentioned at the beginning that civil servants had to be neutral in their political leanings. Well, by the end, it seemed he was as in love with the Bush administration as he is with himself. One thing that I did learn was that the British Ambassador to the US in fact is the one person who knows everything and advises everyone and basically runs the world, while the President and Prime Minister are just figureheads to do his bidding.
But possibly the most disconcerting moment came when he was describing his first meeting with his wife. It was very much like Captain Renault in Casablanca (but without the charm)when Renault's assistant announces 'Another visa problem, sir'; [Renault straightens tie and looks smug], 'Send her in.' Really really creepy and downright unprofessional for an ambassador meeting with a woman who was trying to get visitation rights with her children. Although I lost sympathy for her when she said that George Bush Snr was the handsomest man in the US - has she never seen a picture of George Clooney ... or any other man, come to that? Between that and her French friend saying that she didn't mind that all through dinner Donald Rumsfeld slated France because 'he was so handsome', you start to wonder what they put in the water in the Embassy!
Don't bother with this book.

DC Confidential: THE CONTROVERSIAL MEMOIRS OF BRITAIN'S AMBASSADOR AT THE TIME OF 9/11 AND THE RUN-UP TO THE IRAQ WAR: The Controversial Memoirs of Britain's ... Time of 9/11 and the Run-up to the Iraq War

Christopher Meyer

Reader Reviews:

Not the definitive expose - Meyer could have given more (1/1 people found this helpful)

Bill Bryson joined the FCO (2/2 people found this helpful)

Not as interesting as it should have been. (3/4 people found this helpful)

Worth reading (4/7 people found this helpful)

When I Ran The World (14/18 people found this helpful)

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