Prezza: My Story: Pulling No Punches

This is not a heavyweight book, it's not really comparable to memoirs by Thatcher or Campbell, but it is still an enjoyable and informative read.

Prescott is candid about deeply personal things like his struggles with bulimia and academia. He is less candid about the true nature of some of the people he has worked with. No one really gets a kicking, which is surprising for someone like Prescott who says in his book that one of his best qualities is his professional aggression. Bearing in mind the book's title, I would have liked to have seen him land a few more well placed blows on his opponents...

But Prescott has inarguably led a fascinating life and as such this is an inspiring success story of battling against the odds to achieve big things at the highest level of public service.

'Prezza' is not one for the political academics, but it would be a great book for those with an interest in the Labour Party and current affairs to chuck in the hand luggage for a bit of aeroplane reading.

Didn't do what I'd hoped (1/1 people found this helpful)

This is a very easy read! It doesn't read like a typical autobiography of a politician, Prescott seems to have only read a couple of books, such as Campbell's diaries, and hasn't done much work, so some figures are based on his memory, and aren't checked out. His biases are played out, so despite his protests he does come across as someone who doesn't have an equal view of women, or value anything about tories - indeed his description of a conservation with the then PM Major Prezza comes across as rude.

As a book that may capture Prescott the man this may do the job, but for a deputy PM, or a high profile politician, it is slight, we can only have greater hope for Tony Blair's biography

A captivating and enjoyable insight into a much-maligned public figure (0/2 people found this helpful)

This is a really fabulous read. I thoroughly recommend it. I'd give it six stars if I could!

During the years of Conservative government John Prescott was always there in opposition blustering and expounding labour theories and policies. There was something of the buffoon about him. Or so I was led to think. When Labour came into government I began to see a different John Prescott, but for some reason the media didn't let the real man shine through; they preferred to show to poke fun, often cruelly. I looked forward to the day when he would publish an autobiography.

I bought this book late last year and devoured it greedily. It is written so well and so personally by John. I feel that I know both him and Pauline, almost personally in fact. The book confirmed my previous thoughts: that the image portrayed by the media belied a man of great integrity, decency and with a sense of fun too. Was he the power behind the throne? Well I'm not sure about that (I'm no politico) but what is clear from the book is that without JP it is unlikely that Blair or Brown would have become prime minister.

An ardent trades unionist, a supporter of the rights of the worker but certainly no red Ken. The detailed chronicle of his rise through the ranks of the NUS and his life at sea was really fascinating. Against all the odds (and there were plenty of them thrown in his way) he came out on top, but he didn't gloat.

I didn't realise he was so closely involved in Kyoto. Indeed as becomes apparent in the book, he was the major driver and deserves much credit for tenacity and negotiation to achieve agreement, drawing on his long career in the union movement.

This review probably reads as written by a psychophant. I promise I'm not! But I was brought up by parents who thought he was awful, a nasty piece of work and the buffoon I've already referred to. I saw something more there, but politicians are so difficult to get to know properly when they are aspiring to, and then in, high public office.

I feel I know the real man now. And I like him very much. Enough that of all the books I've read lately, he's the guy I'd most like to tell personally how much I enjoyed reading his book. This book is definitely staying on my bookshelves for reading again in the future.

So John, if you read this review, PLEASE get in touch because your constituency office didn't reply to my email!

Prezza: My enormous chip on my shoulder (11/14 people found this helpful)

I always had a sneaking regard for Prescott, yes he came across sometimes as a bit of a maverick but it made for a refreshing contrast to other politicians.

Oh how one book can change your opinion of a man! To be blunt this is not just a poor political biography but a very poor book all round - a lightweight book about a supposedly heavyweight politician, which is more at home amongst the shallow so-called celebs' biographies than amongst serious political tomes.

This review really can be summarised by changing the book's title to `Prezza: My enormous chip on my shoulder', and you really don't need any further information as to what this book is about.

I'm honestly not exaggerating when I say that virtually every other page documents his struggles with academia and the feeling that the whole world is a conspiracy against him, usually because of those `nasty Tory toffs'. Soon into the book, even though there is an element of sympathy regarding his lack of academic abilities, you start to say `yes, yes we know, we get the point, now move on'.

Everyone, according to poor John, is trying to stitch him up; Sky News, the Labour Party, Unions and even the Queen. His encounter with the Queen provided one of the humorous highlights of the book and its inclusion had the opposite effect on me than Prescott probably intended. Instead of, like me, appreciating essentially a fellow master politician at work, with the subtly, astuteness and professionalism that the Queen displayed in a possibly awkward situation, Prescott's response was; "She'd deliberately... caught me out".

Perhaps some will see this review as unduly harsh (and if Prescott's reading it, part of the worldwide conspiracy against him) but I have certain expectations regarding political biographies.

Essentially, politicians are the cream of the top in terms of ability and intellect and I expect their work to reflect that to an electorate who votes and pays for them, so that we get an idea how the system works and how decisions, which affect every part of our lives, were made. For example books by Thatcher, Tony Benn, Healey, and Churchill are essential reading as political works. This is not one of them.

Major political issues such as the Referendum in 1975 are skimmed over and it's hard to see, despite Prescott holding the honourable office of Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, what he actually did apart from be a marriage counsellor to Blair and Brown. Even this is mainly whitewashed over. This subject has been covered in depth elsewhere especially by Andrew Rawnsley in his excellent Servants of the People, but Prescott's version (and he was at the centre of it) is reduced to one chapter with little analysis or much detail.

In all, a disappointing book which only took me half a day to read and probably not much more time to write.

Prezza: My enormous chip on my shoulder (7/10 people found this helpful)

Prezza: My Story: Pulling No Punches

John Prescott

Reader Reviews:

Entertaining and easy to read (5/5 people found this helpful)

Didn't do what I'd hoped (1/1 people found this helpful)

A captivating and enjoyable insight into a much-maligned public figure (0/2 people found this helpful)

Prezza: My enormous chip on my shoulder (11/14 people found this helpful)

Prezza: My enormous chip on my shoulder (7/10 people found this helpful)

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