Diaries Volume One: Prelude to Power (The Alastair Campbell Diaries, 1)

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Campbell is widely reported to have coined the phrase "the people's princess" and to have persuaded the queen to make her broadcast to the nation more personal, not least by using the phrase "speaking as a grandmother". He then moved to the post of Prime Minister's Director of Communications, which gave him a strategic role in overseeing government communications. Goldsmith comes out badly from the Chilcot report – maybe second only to Blair in terms of damage to his reputation. Opening with an acute analysis of our polarised world and the populists and extremists who have shaped it, it goes on to show how we help transform it. For the record it’s Campbell, who describes himself feeling somewhat “used” by the Americans and wonders if they did the “right thing in the wrong way”, whose view perhaps best stands the test of the time.

The Thersites of Downing Street, Campbell offers bags of self-love - he tells us, straight-faced, that Diana, Princess of Wales, fancied him rotten - implicitly bags of self-loathing, but at no time self-examination. He bursts forth like the classic dry drunk - the person who has transferred his anger with himself into a reflex generalised anger against others, most of whom insist on sporting clothes he dislikes, expressions he loathes and views he detests. Prelude to Power is the first of four volumes, and covers the early days of New Labour, culminating in their victory at the polls in 1997.Chilcot concludes that the circumstances in which it was decided that there was a legal basis for UK military action “were far from satisfactory”. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he performed on the bagpipes in a charity song written by Martin Gillespie of Scottish band Skerryvore, "Everyday Heroes", which topped the iTunes download charts within hours of release. A bad man like Dick Cheney ("He was not one to speak too much for the sake of it") escapes Campbell's scorn, while far less sinister souls attract it.

Campbell feels he gets no credit for having quit, but still can’t let go or stop defending Blair’s corner.There was a period in our 20s and early 30s when we seemed to be going to a white wedding every other weekend, and while I raged about friends I knew to be somewhat detached from godliness doing the God thing, Fiona would smile quietly throughout, but in the car home wonder how a modern woman could “go along with all that being ‘given away’ by one man to another, like a bloody chattel”. In response, shadow minister Dawn Butler stated that it was common knowledge that voting for another party would result in automatic exclusion. He continued to act as an advisor to Mr Blair and the Labour Party, including during subsequent election campaigns. The counterpoint between the celebrating crowds and the inner angst of the diarist helps to sustain the reader's interest.

Campbell could hardly be expected to draw these threads together and predict Brexit in one late night diary entry in 2004, but it would be fascinating to see him try to retrace the steps. When Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon revealed to Campbell that Kelly had talked to the BBC, Campbell had then decided, in his own words, to use this fact to "fuck Gilligan". Prelude to Power covers the period from May 1994, when John Smith's death created the vacancy for Tony Blair to take over as Labour leader, to May 1997, when he came to power. He acknowledged the vulnerabilities of the lightly armoured Snatch Land Rover and the muddled attempt to find a replacement vehicle for it.Testifying at the Royal Courts of Justice during the Hutton inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly, Alastair Campbell said of his diary: "It is not intended for publication.