A rattling good read: Lord Smith reviews Chris Bryant's 'A Life and a Half'
Rhondda, 2001: Labour Party candidate Chris Bryant campaigns for election | Image by: Alamy / Jeff Morgan 02
3 min read
Chris Bryant’s memoir has frequent laugh-out-loud moments – which is more than can be said of most political autobiographies
The first and most important thing to say about Chris Bryant’s new autobiographical book is that it’s a rattling good read. There are frequent laugh-out-loud moments too. And neither of these are things that can be said of most political autobiographies.
Chris has had an extraordinary life. He says of one of his closest friends, in the book, “It felt as if she had already lived several lives”, and you get exactly this sense with Chris himself. Spain, acting, priesthood, South America, the BBC, and now politics: he takes us through a fascinating and eclectic journey, and he does it with charm and wit.
The book finishes with his election in Rhondda in 2001 – and it’s a sign of how good the book is that you end wanting him to go on, about the next 20-plus years.
There is searing honesty, about his struggles with his mother’s alcoholism, about his relationship with his father, about his genuine love for a number of women, and about his sexual encounters with men.
He takes us through a fascinating journey, and he does it with charm and wit
He recounts a wonderful moment in the shortlisting meeting for the parliamentary candidacy, in Tonypandy, where he decides to make a statement about being gay and about how ability and strength of character are what matter. The audience cheers. There is a wonderful sentence at the end of Roy Jenkins’ biography of HH Asquith: “What did he leave behind him? A memory which is a standing contradiction to those who wish to believe that only men with cold hearts and twisted tongues can succeed in politics.” Chris demonstrates exactly this openness and candour in this book. There is no cold heart or twisted tongue here.
At the start of the book, and again at the end, Chris speaks of the Spanish concept of ¡Ojalá! – for which there is no really adequate English translation, but which could be described as meaning “I hope” or “if only” or “would that” – a sense of aspiration, of hope, of yearning for something better than our current condition. This runs through the book as a leitmotif; it is the fundamental political purpose that has driven Chris throughout his career.
And what a career it has been. This book takes us on a romping ride through childhood excitement in Spain, schooldays in the shadow of Stirling Castle and then at Cheltenham, student life in Oxford (I’ll forgive him for that bit), the National Youth Theatre, priesthood and attempts to conduct weddings and funerals, adventures in Latin America, constituency organisation for the Labour Party, chairing the Christian Socialist Movement, becoming the European mover and shaker for the BBC, and finally ending up as the MP for Rhondda.
Politics today is all too often about tinkering, managing, getting through. There is too little sense of hope, of aspiration, of the search for something better. Read Chris’ book. It’s all about reaching for the sky.
Lord Smith of Finsbury is a Labour peer
A Life and a Half: The Unexpected Making of a Politician
By: Chris Bryan
Publisher: Bloomsbury
