Still spinning

According to the Spectator’s literary editor, Peter Mandelson wrote the most boring book review ever published by the Spectator. I imagine he did. You don’t read the Mandelson memoir; you wade through it in leaking gum boots.

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Geoff Hill

What’s the truth about South Africa’s ‘genocide’ of white farmers?

The lack of illumination is nothing compared to the faceless prose. Mandelson cannot evoke the personality of Alan Clark’s or Chris Mullin’s diaries. Form is crucial in that memoirs justify and diaries observe. Clark’s love of Mrs Thatcher and his self-importance match Mandelson’s love of Blair and his preening conceit that there was a ‘Third Man’ at the heart of New Labour’s tenure in office – Mandelson spent most of it in exile. But while Clark rails against ‘pinkish toff w*****s like Charlie Morrison who have been frozen out by the Lady’, Mandelson gives only grey innuendo.