Boris Johnson’s memoir ‘Unleashed’ will hit the shelves against a backdrop of widespread condemnation as the book gets torn to pieces by the critics.
Publishing house HarperCollins has described the memoir, which will cover Johnson’s time as mayor of London and as prime minister, as an “honest, unrestrained and deeply revealing book, written in his inimitable style and shattering the mould of the modern prime ministerial memoir”.
“This is the reality as he saw it: unvarnished, uncensored, unleashed.”
Johnson received a £510,000 (approx. €603,000) advance for the memoir – well above the £7,674 (€9,000) advance his successor Liz Truss received for her memoir “10 Years To Save The West”, which was published in April and chronicled her infamously short-lived tenure in Number 10.
Of the upcoming publication, Johnson said: “I am honoured that HarperCollins is publishing my personal account of the huge realignment that took place in UK politics in the last 15 years – and what may lie ahead. So stand by for my thoughts on Britain’s future to explode over the publishing world like a much-shaken bottle of champagne.”
Early newspaper reviews of the book suggest it could be somewhat of a damp squib, with the word ‘narcism’ occurring on more than one occasion.
- “No Narcissus ever stared more intently into the limpid waters of self-love” – Independent
- “The former prime minister avoids introspection or penetrating insight, preferring instead to hide behind his cartoonish image” – The Times
- “Memoirs of a clown” – The Guardian
On social media, meanwhile, the reaction has also been similarly downbeat, as the following posts suggest:
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