Excellent biography that does not whitewash his behaviour but tries to understand his success. It is important to realise it covers his time up to him becoming Mayor of London and his (lack of) achievements there but not his time as Prime Minister. ( )

Well-written & researched, speedy & gossipy biography.

Boris is certainly a chip off the old block. His father, Stanley, worked for a think-tank on population control, until his personal population explosion made him a laughing-stock, and he resigned with a very lucrative leaving gift. His absence & constant affairs contributed to his wife suffering depression & being admitted to hospital. So young Boris & his sister were waived off from home in Belgium, and had to find their own way to boarding school in East Sussex. As this didn’t kill them, it no doubt aided their ‘can-do, go-for it’ confidence, self-reliance, opportunism & bouncy optimism.

Never one to turn down an opportunity to make money & self-promote, a typical year saw Boris juggling 4 children, a wife & 2+ simultaneous affairs, editing the Spectator, writing copiously including a book, fronting a tv history series, being an MP... catch breath. Taking on so much he would exasperate colleagues by being unprepared/ late / somewhere else, & generally flying by the seat of his pants, then making copious apologies, before continuing on as usual.

Purcell suggests he stood for Mayor simply to up his profile, and then was rather daunted when it looked as though he may win the vote. How could he cope with the drop in income. It paying a measly £100k per year, which was the same amount as the kids’ school fees? So he wangled sideline work to get to a more respectable £350k+. After all he needs that extra money to take his wife on extravagant hols each time the public humiliation of his womanising/ impregnating gets too much for her.

The book was written in 2012, with Boris wondering if he can combine a 2nd term as Mayor & being an MP.

As I read this, Boris has just become Prime Minister (how will he cope with the income-drop, this position pays much less than London Mayor?). But he has landed the job he always felt entitled to, that was his destiny. Whether he is still PM by the time you read this of course is another matter altogether... ( )

The conundrum that is Boris Johnson is deeply explored in Purnell's well researched book. You often find yourself lurching from admiration to total dismay as the freewheeling Boris stumbles from journalist to 'accidental' public and media hero. The bare facts of his tenancy as Mayor of London make worrying reading, especially the financial aspects. The constant affairs and obvious ambition do not paint a particularly nice picture of Boris, but on the other hand, you somehow have to admire he shear cheek and obvious charm.

A longish book at 457 pages, but well researched, the author is quite harsh on Boris and the Johnson family in general at ties, but you also feel, has a sneaking admiration for him.

Well worth a read ( )