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He is a politician, he remembers it that way
On October 10, Boris Johnson's political memoirs "Unleashed" were published, which turned out to be by the same author. Peculiar, sharp-tongued and not always truthful. And their sale once again showed that the former British Prime Minister is no longer interested in the glitter and luxury.
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s memoir, which went on sale last week, appears to have been a runaway success. He has finally revealed perhaps his darkest secret. He has revealed the secret behind Queen Elizabeth II’s death (his theory is that the monarch suffered from a malignant bone tumour). He has embarrassed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by claiming that he almost personally bugged the British Foreign Office bathroom during a visit to London in 2017. He has suggested that a naval operation could be launched to seize the AstraZeneca vaccine from a warehouse in the Netherlands. Because he believed the vaccine belonged to Britain. Emmanuel Macron has accused Britain of encouraging illegal migration across the Channel in an attempt to punish Britain for Brexit. Finally, he publicly mocked Joe Biden by claiming that he gave the US President a photograph printed from Wikipedia in exchange for expensive gifts to the US delegation during the G7 summit.
But the memoir didn't stay at the top of Amazon's bestseller list for long. Within days, "Unleashed," a cookbook and children's book about the adventures of penguins, had become the online retailer's seventh-best-selling book.
And this is the “political memoir of the century,” despite a large-scale advertising campaign, the appearance of Mr. Johnson himself in the studios of various TV channels and a large review in the Daily Mail. However, the latter is not surprising, since the former British Prime Minister is still a columnist for the newspaper.
The press, not particularly partial to Johnson, gave his memoir a cool, almost subversive reception. The liberal Guardian, for example, allowed itself to be called “the memoirs of a clown.” “There is much to note. And there are many hallmarks of Johnson’s work in general. There are images of bouncing balls (a reference to Kommersant, one of Johnson’s nicknames in the book) and a rich vocabulary. But there is also outright dishonesty and lies.”
The Washington Post wrote in its review: “This book is like the former prime minister. It’s funny, it’s unpleasant, it’s not entirely believable. At least, that was the initial impression.” The Washington Post noted that Boris Johnson had once again tried his best to attract public attention. But he himself was “no longer an influential politician” and “his party had banned him from office.” “His words have no effect since he was sacked.”
Politico is happy to point out the problems facing Johnson’s memoir. The book won’t reach European readers until midweek. That’s because Boris Johnson himself once advocated leaving the EU. “The book hasn’t arrived yet, but that’s because of Brexit. “It’s ironic.” The publication quotes a manager at a Waterstones store in central Brussels.
And only The Times seems to sympathize with the author of the memoirs. Of course, the London newspaper, like its colleagues at Politico, remembers well what kind of journalist Boris Johnson himself is.
As The Daily Telegraph's Brussels correspondent, Johnson earned a reputation for spinning conspiracy theories and outrageous stories.
He was already a Eurosceptic, telling newspaper readers how the EU wanted to ban British sausages, how European officials would set the acceptable curvature of bananas, and how the European Commission building was secretly collapsing because of its asbestos cladding. It was scheduled for demolition. It was too dangerous to go inside. But, as The Times points out, “Berlaymont” is still relevant, and all of Johnson’s other stories are absurd and outright fiction. Even when he was already Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary, he couldn’t do without it.
But despite all this, the paper notes irritably: “The most ardent of Johnson’s many detractors don’t even acknowledge his brilliant intellect. He speaks several languages, including ancient Greek. His love of the classics is genuine. In person, he is quite capable of applying to himself the same intellectual analysis that he would apply to the writings of Aeschylus or the speeches of Pericles. Yet publicly, the book is a public document, and the tone is set by the epitaph “Hasta la vista, baby” from Terminator 2: Judgement Day. That is Boris Johnson.”