A revelatory account of Tony Blair’s tumultuous leadership, The Blair Years gathers extracts from the diaries of the man who knew him best: Alastair Campbell—Blair’s spokesman from 1994 to 2003, his press secretary, strategist, and closest confidant. It is a compelling chronicle of contemporary British politics and the rise of New Labour, providing the first important record of a remarkable decade in Britain’s history.

Here are the defining events of the time, from the Labour Party’s new dawn to the war on terror; from the death of Princess Diana to negotiations for peace in Northern Ireland; from Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq to the Hutton Inquiry of 2003, the year Campbell resigned his position. Here also are Blair’s relationships with world leaders and heads of state, including presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. But above all, here is Tony Blair up close and personal, making the decisions that affected the lives of millions, under relentless and frequently hostile pressure.

Often described as the second most powerful figure in Britain, Alastair Campbell is no stranger to controversy. Feared and admired in equal measure, hated by some, he was pivotal to the founding of New Labour and the sensational election victory of 1997. Campbell spent more waking hours alongside the prime minister than anyone, and his diaries—at times brutally frank, often funny, always engrossing—take the reader right to the heart of government.

The Blair Years is a story of politics in the raw, of progress and setback, of reputations made and destroyed, under the relentless scrutiny of a 24-hour media. Unflinchingly told, it covers the crises and scandals, the rows and resignations, the ups and downs at No. 10 Downing Street. But amid the landmark events are insights and observations that make this a remarkably human portrayal of some of the most influential people in the world.

A completely riveting book about life at the very top, told by a man who saw it all.

"Tony Blair was one of Great Britain's youngest and longest-serving Prime Ministers, and Campbell was Blair's Press Secretary from 1994 to 2003, accompanying Blair through his initial, hugely succesful campaign for Prime Minister, the reform of the Labour Party, the death of Princess Diana, the Clinton presidency, 9/11 and the war in Iraq. The style of Campbell's diaries, full of shorthand and acronyms ('TB' for Tony Blair, 'BC' for Bill Clinton), takes some getting used to but pays off in immediacy and candor; rather than a polished account of events, Campbell gives readers refreshingly unvarnished impressions of what occurred at the time it was occurring, free of spin or second-guessing. People behave badly-swearing, losing tempers, perspiring, dressing inappropriately and lusting after women-and political fortunes, as well as marriages, suffer the strain. Appearances by Bill Clinton (in the midst of the Lewinsky fallout) are remarkable for the vulnerability they reveal, and the arrangements for Diana's funeral, made by the Blair cabinet and the Royal Family together, exhibit a fascinating mix of compassion and calculation (Blair comments, shrewdly, 'She will become an icon straight away. She will live on as an icon.') As readers watch Blair navigate the shoals of political life, they, like the author, will emerge admiring him, and appreciating the frank and ultimately flattering portrait that Campbell provides." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Superficially, Alastair Campbell may seem more an American political type than a British one. Traditionally, the 10 Downing Street press secretary was — and under Gordon Brown is once again — an anonymous career civil servant. Tony Blair's larger than life press secretary, by contrast, was a partisan warrior spokesman of a kind more familiar in Washington.

Yet Campbell was forged... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) in a specifically British crucible. Battle-hardened as a tabloid political reporter, he was brought into government by the newly elected prime minister in May 1997 with a mission to stop the British media — which only this year Blair described as a 'feral beast' — from doing to his Labor government what it had done to John Major's defeated Conservatives.

Campbell remained on the job for more than six years, a key confidant and a massively controversial figure, as obsessed by the media as the media were obsessed by him. He quit in August 2003, as Blair's domestic popularity started to dim in the aftermath of the Iraq War, but their mutual dependency continued. When Campbell left Downing Street for the last time, Blair said to him, in words that illuminate something about both men: 'You do realize I will phone you every day, don't you?'

From early in the Blair era it was an open secret that Campbell was keeping a diary and, more recently, that he would go into print with it as soon as Blair left Downing Street, which the former premier finally did on June 27. Initial expectations in the London political world were immense, not least because Campbell mischievously referred to the diary as his pension plan. Later, those expectations were heavily discounted after it became clear that the book, already reduced to less than 20 percent of the original material, was heavily self-censored.

The published version reportedly has been purged of most of the entries that might show Brown in a bad light (though the new prime minister does not appear glowingly in what remains), might upset the Bush administration (likewise), might distress Cherie Blair and her children, or might indicate Campbell spent much of his time bad-mouthing reporters. In its British edition, 'The Blair Years' is accurately described on the cover as 'Extracts from the Alastair Campbell diaries.' For the U.S. edition, the publisher has removed the important reference to extracts.

Campbell's book must therefore be read with care. It is not the full, unexpurgated, inside story of the Blair era. For that we must wait at least until Campbell publishes the whole text — which is unlikely as long as Labor remains in power. What we have got is both spun and doctored. Yet much remains, not least the author's — and Blair's — obsession with soccer (Manchester United coach Sir Alex Ferguson gets more references in these diaries than any of the journalists with whom Campbell spent most of his waking hours) and celebrity (Princess Diana was 'absolutely, spell-bindingly, drop-dead gorgeous, in a way that the millions of photos didn't quite get'), and his expletive-filled language.

It would have been deeply misleading if Campbell's pungent English had been excised, too. Happily, it remains mostly intact, though some of Blair's expletives — less frequent to begin with — apparently have been removed. In an August 2003 entry, Campbell records being instructed to turn over part of his manuscript to Lord Hutton's inquiry into the suicide of British defense scientist David Kelly. With tensions mounting over Iraq, Blair telephones from vacation to be told that there is 'a fair bit of bad language' in the sections handed to Hutton. The premier is alarmed. ' "How much?" A fair bit. "(Verb)?" Yes. "(Noun)?" Probably, can't remember. "Bloody hell, Alastair."'

Yet even with these cautions, this is beyond question the most important and revelatory book so far written about the inner workings of Blair's government. Along with Brown, strategist Peter Mandelson and pollster Philip Gould, Campbell was at the heart of the New Labor project that transformed an ailing party that had lost four successive British general elections into a dominant party that won the next three and may yet win more. After 1997, he was at Blair's side in Downing Street through all the key events — from the death of Princess Diana to Kelly's suicide, the ebbs and flows of the Northern Ireland peace process, and selling the government's foreign strategy, with increasing desperation, from Kosovo to Iraq.

Visits to Washington and dealings with U.S. administrations inevitably figure large in his account. Campbell was dazzled by Bill Clinton, spooked by Dick Cheney, and respectful (at least in the published version) of George W. Bush, with whom he discussed drinking problems (Campbell's was worse than the president's), running and God (Campbell is a believer in the former and a non-believer in the latter). Visiting this newspaper with Blair in 1996, he found chairman Katharine Graham 'impressive' and the editorial board 'very right-wing.'

By turns arrogant, brilliant, combative, demotic and emotional, Campbell delivers his impressions and verdicts in a wholly committed, staccato style. It is an earthy account of life in the Blair government's 24/7 media-centric world. As Campbell might say, he doesn't do reflection.

As with so much of Blair's career, the big question raised by this book is whether Blair's approach to politics was a paradigm for others to follow or an aberration for others to avoid. Whether governments can keep the modern media at arm's length, as Brown, borrowing from the Bush White House, is now trying to do, or whether they are doomed to scrap it out, is a crucial question.

Campbell's diaries scream that the daily combat is inescapable. His career suggests it will end in tears. Watching the media coverage of Campbell's last day in No. 10, Gould observed that 'You'd have thought the Pope had died.' Campbell's own view of the media, however, was less elevated: 'God, I hate these people.' They could carve those words on his tombstone.

Martin Kettle is a political columnist for the London Guardian and was previously the paper's U.S. bureau chief.

" Reviewed by Martin Kettle, Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
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“This is a brilliant, absorbing account . . . Vivid, direct, immediate, and honest in its way, the diary draws you into a world for which ‘evil’ is hardly too strong a word . . . Rich in detail, powerful in mood, honest within its own lights, it is the more intriguing for the dark and often unspoken presence, at its core, of a mystery: the Master, Blair . . . These diaries will be gasped at, and relied upon, for decades to come. Buy them: they will suck you in.”

The Times

“Beyond question the most important and revelatory book so far written about the inner workings of Blair’s government . . . By turns arrogant, brilliant, combative, demotic and emotional, Campbell delivers his impressions and verdicts in a wholly committed, staccato style. It is an earthy account of life in the Blair government's 24/7 media-centric world.”

The Washington Post Book World

“There are fascinating details and revelatory nuggets . . . Campbell brings back to vivid and gripping life the night that Diana died [and] when Nato was losing public opinion over Kosovo.”

The Observer

“Electric . . . Campbell is a first-rate diarist [with] a very acute eye for the telling detail . . . He has a novelist’s ability to reveal character through a close study of behaviour and–rare in a political diarist–an artist’s understanding that it is the smallest things which reveal the most . . . The portrait of Tony Blair is by turns endearing and unnervingly frightening . . . This is a perfect piece of diary-writing: eagle-eyed, gossipy, funny.”

Mail on Sunday

Alastair Campbell was born in Keighley, Yorkshire, in 1957. A graduate of Cambridge University, his first career was in journalism. He was asked by Tony Blair to be his press secretary when Blair became leader of the Labour Party. He worked for Blair—first in that capacity, then as official spokesman and director of communications and strategy—from 1994 to 2003. Since his resignation, he has been engaged mainly in writing, public speaking, and working for Leukaemia Research, where he is chairman of fund-raising. He has continued to act as an adviser to Blair and the Labour Party, including during the 2005 election campaign. Campbell lives in London.

Richard Stott, who began editing the diaries three years ago, is an award-winning journalist who was twice editor of the Daily Mirror. He writes a political and current affairs column for the Sunday Mirror.