• ISBN13: 9780340825341
• Binding: Hardcover
• Subject: History
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Publisher Imprint: Hodder&St
• Publication Date: April 15, 2004
• Pages: 384
• Original Price: GBP 20.0
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 1000 grams

David Blunkett has never been a conventional politician - or personality. Blind since childhood, seemingly a traditional 'old Labour' councillor in Sheffield, he is now Home Secretary and a key member of the Labour government. How did this son of a Sheffield steel worker achieve all this? And what motivates him now? Stephen Pollard has had exclusive access to David Blunkett for the past two years. This biography is based on many hours of intimate conversation, covering not only his early life and blindness but also life on the government front bench - and his hopes for the future. As you would expect, Blunkett is both frank and candid in his opinions of his political allies and opponents - and unsparing in his analysis of his own performance. Stephen Pollard has also interviewed more than fifty other people, including two serving cabinet ministers, in his quest to present a complete portrait of this remarkable yet ordinary man. The result is both a revealing account of an intriguing personality and a fascinating look behind the scenes of British political life.

Stephen Pollard is a political columnist who writes regularly for British and American newspapers. He is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for the New Europe, a Brussels-based think tank, where he directs the health policy programme, and at Civitas, the Institute for the Study of Civil Society, in London. He is the author of numerous pamphlets and books and is co-author with Andrew Adonis of A Class Act -- the Myth of Britain's Classless Society, which was shortlisted for the 1997 Orwell Prize. In 2003 he was a prize winner at the Bastiat awards for journalism.