Boris Johnson: Unleashed

Boris Johnson has always been larger than life. Controversial, untrammelled by the normal rules of politics, his route to becoming Britain’s prime minister included a landmark career as a journalist, two terms as London’s mayor, leading the Vote Leave Brexit campaign and acting as foreign secretary. He won the largest Tory majority since 1987 when he went to the polls in December 2019 for a mandate to ‘Get Brexit Done’ – only to have his administration hit by the global Covid pandemic and toppled in a Tory putsch.

Unleashed is his account of his time in politics, and a book that shatters the mould of the modern prime ministerial memoir. Written in his inimitable style, it is honest, unrestrained and deeply revealing about the politician who has dominated our times.

This is his story of the fifteen years since he trounced Ken Livingstone at the polls to become mayor of London. Riots, tackling knife crime, bikes, buses, the London Olympics, and so much more. He writes about his role in Brexit, takes readers through all the big decisions and his reasons for taking them, and describes how he nearly died from Covid.

Underlying everything in the book is his view that the UK is an extraordinary country and should have an exceptional future. These are the reflections of a political leader who believes fundamentally in levelling up – that there are millions of people in Britain who do not have the present they need or the future they deserve, and that it is the first job of politicians to put this right.

It is all here. From soup to nuts, warts and all. As a journalist he was famed as a blurter of unsayable truths, and he has drawn again on this quality for the book. About people, policies, mistakes and triumphs. This is it – the reality as he saw it: unvarnished, unlocked, unleashed.

Review

‘Johnson writes better than any other politician – his memoir is proof… Unleashed is incomparably more readable than a standard political memoir…A breezy Wodehousian persona wafts the reader along’

TELEGRAPH

‘Authentically amusing…he writes with energy and originality’

THE TIMES

‘A racy, charming and sometimes thought-provoking romp… teasingly settling a few scores with the likes of his former Downing Street advisers Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain, and ― the Iago of the tale ― Rishi Sunak. A rattling yarn in his own terms… he takes the reader inside his own doubts, uncertainties and ― distinctly qualified ― insecurities’

FINANCIAL TIMES

‘This is a box of Turkish Delight as addictive as the White Witch’s in Narnia. I defy anyone to finish the book without smiles constantly breaking out, and without having to acknowledge there is actually something heroic – often chaotic, but still heroic – about the man’s determination to champion Britain’s virtues’

MICHAEL GOVE, THE SPECTATOR

'Boris Johnson’s memoir is funny – occasionally properly, laugh-out-loud funny –and he knows how to spin an entertaining yarn. Unlike most other politicians, he can write. These are rare qualities in Westminster and his autobiography, when it hits fifth gear, is a reminder of what might have been; not least the impassioned defence of levelling-up and hymns to the opportunities of Brexit'

THE TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES, Books of the Year

'The most eagerly awaited memoir of the year is also by far the most entertaining'

DAILY TELEGRAPH, Books of the Year

'Revelatory and entertaining in equal measure'

CAMILLA TOMINEY

About the Author

Boris Johnson served as Prime Minister from 24th July 2019 to 6th September 2022. He was previously Foreign Secretary, Mayor of London, Conservative MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip and Conservative MP for Henley. In addition to his work in politics, Mr Johnson is an award-winning journalist, writer and editor. He is the author of almost a dozen books, including the globally bestselling historical biography of Winston Churchill, The Churchill Factor.