Peter Oborne

Simon Walters

With Alastair Campbell's career as the Prime Minster's press spokesman coming to a close amid the huge controversy of the Hutton Inquiry, the debate over Weapons of Mass Destruction and the waging of the war in Iraq, this biography has been completely revised and rewritten with a substantial section of new material to bring the story of Alastair Campbell right up to date as of the end of 2003. politics, whose combative approach to his job in 2003 has precipitated the most serious row in years between the government and the BBC, occasioned the extraordinary spectacle of an incandescent Campbell walking into Channel 4 News to deliver a live diatribe to Jon Snow, and who, if his many critics are to be believed, was involved, unprecedentedly, at the highest level in the presentation of the intelligence dossier on Weapons of Mass Destruction that made the government's case for war. This portrait of Tony Blair's right-hand man who has himself become the media story, is written by one of Britain's best political journalists.

Alastair Campbell

Do you know your Boosterism from your Backstopectomy? Can you tell Prometheus from Cincinnatus, and if so, do you know what Prime Minister Boris Johnson is trying to say when he namechecks esoteric figures from the classics, quotes obscure phrases from history or just makes words up? Certainly, Johnson is the most verbose Prime Minister of recent years, no doubt the result of a classical education, a closet full of public-school confidence and a former career as a wordsmith for The Times. Boris, more than perhaps any other leader, knows the importance of words, but he also knows how to have serious fun with them. Welcome to The Borisaurus, a lexicon of the Prime Minister’s funniest, wittiest, most interesting words and phrases compiled in one brilliant dictionary, with every entry accompanied by a guide to its etymology, pronunciation, meaning and the intention of its use.

Simon Walters

Books

Your next favorite book is out there