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Most reviewed: Speaking for Myself

19.05.08 Anna Richardson

Cherie Blair’s Speaking for Myself (Little, Brown) was last weekend’s most reviewed book--not surprising, following last week’s wide-spread media coverage sparked by the book’s double serialisation in the Times and the Sun.

Among those poring over the book for review was Barbara Ellen, the journalist behind the infamous Marie Claire magazine “Lippygate” feature, which portrayed Blair having her lipstick applied by Carole Caplin. In the Observer, Ellen wrote: “One hopes for her sake that Cherie got the rumoured lucrative deals as, quite frankly, once they’d finished taking out the ‘good bits’ there was little of consequence left.” She added that “all of this makes Cherie look stupid: less Lady Macbeth; more a social climbing New Labour Hyacinth Bucket”.

George Parker, in the Financial Times, found that Speaking for Myself “seems to be the result of a pact with her publishers which leaves readers short on political revelations and long on personal anecdotes and innuendo, designed to garner the book publicity”. He concluded that some might find Blair’s tale “‘warm and intimate’, as the publishers claim. Others may have more sympathy with the view of Gerald Butler QC, who called for her to be expelled from the judiciary for her ‘complete lack of decency’”.

Bel Mooney in the Times was slightly kinder. “Speaking for Myself is a riveting read,” she wrote. “The total lack of literary style and thoughtfulness not quite compensated for by its energy.”
The Mail on Sunday’s Craig Brown, meanwhile, believed “Too Much Information” might have been a suitable subtitle for the book, and points out that “when Cherie spills the beans, they are her own beans, and she likes to spill them all over herself”.

Most reviewed (16th to 18th May)

Speaking for Myself by Cherie Blair
(Little, Brown 9781408700983 £18.99)
“A riveting read” Times
“Short on political revelations”  Financial Times
“Unlike Hillary Clinton’s, [Blair’s] autobiography is not bland” Mail on Sunday
“An opportunity missed” Observer

Whatever Makes You Happy by William Sutcliffe
(Bloomsbury 9780747593645 £10.99)
“Moving” Financial Times
“Sweeping historical drama” Daily Mirror
“The plotting is as tight as possible” Sunday Telegraph

A Question of Honour by Michael Levy
(Simon & Schuster 9781847373151 £18.99)
“There is an almost Pooterish quality to this memoir” Financial Times
“Deplorable” Observer
“Fabulous” Sunday Times

Alfred & Emily by Doris Lessing
(Fourth Estate 9780007233458 £16.99)
“Powerful” Independent
“One of the strangest books you will ever read”  Mail on Sunday
Daily Telegraph

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