Rating: 3.5 out of 5
When Boris Johnson finally gave in to fierce pressure from backbenchers, ministers, the media and the public by announcing his resignation as Prime Minister, it fired the starting gun on one of the most extraordinary four-month periods in British political history.
A giant field of candidates threw their hats into the ring for the titanic tussle to be Johnson's successor.
Among them were so-called 'big beasts' of the Conservative party (Grant Shapps, Nadhim Zahawi, Rishi Sunak), the 'rising stars' (Kemi Badenoch, Penny Mordaunt) and those who might be most politely described as 'under the radar' (Rehman Chishti).
Elizabeth Truss MP, the Foreign Secretary, was the eleventh and final candidate to declare, and the last one standing when all was said and done. She battled her way through the five fiercely-contested ballots among Conservative MPs, plus a gruelling campaign to win over her party's membership, and saw off Rishi Sunak in the final two to emerge triumphant in the fight for the highest office in the land.
Seven weeks later, her political authority in tatters following a panicked u-turn on a disastrous mini-Budget, the Liz Truss premiership came to an unprecedently swift end after pressure from outraged Tory backbenchers.
Long service in high office is not a failsafe indicator of success (John F Kennedy served less than three years as President; John Major staggered on for nearly seven as PM) but Truss' 49 days in Downing Street made her tenure a remarkable historical aberration which is sure to be studied by political historians of the future.
Harry Cole (The Sun's Political Editor) and James Heale (The Spectator's Diary Editor) have written the first literary draft of that history in Out of the Blue. Cole and Heale began composing their biography of Truss once it was clear that she was on course to beat Sunak, but as events quickly spiralled and Truss' premiership became imperilled, Cole says they "just kept on writing". The result is a book containing an entire political story arc - from Truss' early political influences to her dramatic Downing Street downfall. The completeness of the work is vital in its captivating narrative - in the details of Truss' earlier ministerial career, we learn of seminal events and decisions which appear to have affected her political thinking and foreshadow what was to come.
Truss herself participated in the project, granting two interviews to the authors. Many other contributors have shared their insights anonymously (and are referenced frequently, if at times inelegantly, as 'a source'), as is standard for political books like these.
Though Cole and Heale warn readers in the introduction that, on account of their rapid writing schedule, "those of you expecting Robert Caro will be disappointed", Out of the Blue is a genuine page-turner. The authors' lively narrative bounds along with gusto, surely aided by Cole's expertise at crafting tabloid-inflected, crackling prose, while the interest level is maintained by regular gossipy insights and punchy quotes from the interviewees.
At its best, the writing here is on a par with the great political biographer Sir Anthony Seldon, though the speed of publication makes this inevitably more of a whistle-stop tour than Seldon's resplendently detailed tomes.
What Out of the Blue lacks in big-picture evaluations, it makes up for in its fly-on-the-wall revelations and readability. The chapters covering Truss' stints as International Trade Secretary and Foreign Secretary are particularly strong, especially an extraordinary passage in which gobsmacking examples of her unique brand of diplomacy are detailed.
Out of the Blue does not dwell on Truss’ deficiencies or liberally quote her detractors in the way that many other political biographies do about their subjects; in this sense, the book is not unsympathetic to her. It is more a potted history of her political life than a critique of her character, though the forthcoming paperback edition may provide the opportunity to include more considered reflections on the fate of her premiership.
The authors avoid including their own personal analyses of events during the narrative, which may occasionally be to Out of the Blue’s detriment, as Cole himself played a role in Truss' downfall. It was he who broke the news of Truss' dramatic major tax U-turn in The Sun during the Conservative Party conference, and he was one of the four reporters whose cutting questions had Truss floundering in her infamous eight-minute press briefing.
Heale used an article in the Spectator to vividly describe Cole’s pivotal role in Truss’ U-turn drama:
“We heard a sudden commotion in the corridor outside. Harry was in a shouting match with a No. 10 adviser over the rumour that the government was U-turning on the 45p top rate of tax.
“‘We’re running the story unless you deny it!’ demanded Harry. ‘I cannot confirm those reports,’ insisted the aide robotically as the back-and-forth reached its climax. Suddenly, they raced each other to the lift. ‘We’re running it!’ shouted Harry, as the doors closed.”
Cole provided his own analysis of the events unfolding before him in two columns for The Sun, but the authors’ own first-person front row seat accounts of these moments in political history are a disappointing absence from Out of the Blue.
While serving as Theresa May’s de facto Deputy PM, David Lidington once remarked that “if there’s one thing working closely with the Prime Minister does, it is to cure you completely of any lingering shred of ambition to want to do that task”. Out of the Blue’s account of Liz Truss’ devastatingly swift dethroning may serve as a similarly resounding deterrent to those Tory MPs who still harbour a desire for the top job.
Photo: Parrot of Doom, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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