Tim Bell

Well it was certainly a gripping read. From being arrested for lewd conduct to his cocaine addiction to his relationship with Margaret Thatcher - it was hard to put the book down and I would certainly recommend it to anyone interested in political communication and public affairs.

The book begins with Tim's family history and it was personally relevant to me as they are from the Hornsey area of London which is where I live now. It then chronologically progresses through Tim's middle class schooling and family life highlighting how blessed he was with the gift of the gab. His relationship with the Saatchi brothers is fascinating as it was certainly volatile by the time Tim came to leave. Mrs Thatcher certainly seemed to hold him in some esteem and he played a big part in the successes - and then failures - of the Conservative Party.

What was interesting to me is that the book focuses mainly on his advertising career which was incredibly successful and then when it considers his PR career as an adviser it seems to only highlight his failures, for example, with the BBC and British Gas. However it didn't seem to matter about these failures as it was people's perception of his role that meant that he remained in demand as an adviser. Tim says himself "I can fall into a sewer and come up smelling of roses". And the book certainly backs this statement up.

The fact that the author states that it is an unauthorised biography and that Tim Bell refused to comment leads to a certain intrigue as to either how much of the book is true, or how much of the truth has been omitted because people refused to talk. Either way it was a compelling read about a charming, successful man.

I have now started reading another Mark Hollingsworth book "MPs for Hire: the secret world of political lobbying" and will again review it in another post.