Book review: Walk on Part

I know that when you see the title of this blog, regular readers, two questions will immediately spring to mind. Firstly, how do I have time to knit a pretty awesome jumper for a baby, read a trashy crime novel and read a volume of political diaries all while training for the Brighton Marathon. Secondly, if the training is going incredibly well, am I still able to sponsor him.  Well the answer to the first question is having two books on the go at once, one fiction and one not, which means you can read regardless of your mood. The answer to the second question is very much you can. In fact many of my friends and family are proving themselves to be nothing short of fantastically tight, so any spare cash would be gratefully received at www.virginmoneygiving.com/russellwhiting1   

Anyway, on to the matter in hand. The third volume of Chris Mullins’ diaries curiously published out of order (chronologically it should have been vol 3, 1 then 2) which doesn't detract too much from the reading as we obviously know what happens anyway. For me though it would have been much nicer to have had them published in order, as this one felt slightly like a tag on to try and make the last few quid out of the series. The fact that so much time has passed between the events described in the book which starts on the day John Smith dies and finishes in July 1999 also make it seem somewhat distant, though that may simply be down to my age at the time.

There are aspects of the early days of the diary which seem completely foreign to us these days, including trips to visit security workers being paid less than £3 an hour and mass sackings days before the entire workforce is rehired on a much lower salary. It's just a shame that we don't get to see the introduction of the minimum wage in this volume.

There are times when it seems to me that Mullins is slightly overplaying his own role in many things, but then it is a certain type of person who keeps a diary. The constant health fears, some of which are well founded in fairness, do become slightly tiresome. Those who are not greatly interested in political detail won't necessarily find the heavy detail on Labour Party meetings in Parliament, and even for those of us for are so inclined there isn't anything in here we didn't already know. As with all diaries the real gold is in the human elements of life, and the short section describing the period immediately before the death of Joan Maynard did bring a tear to my eye.

I like the Mullins as a writer, and greatly enjoyed the other two volumes of his diaries and A Very British Coup which I've read a couple of times, but this one just didn't have the same spark for me. It's hard to explain why, but it felt a little like those prequels to the Star Wars films which came out after the original films. Important texts for students of political history they may end up being, but for now it seems to be the final breath of the 'franchise'.