Author:Lionel Barber
'Extraordinary' TONY BLAIR
'Riveting' - PHILIPPE SANDS
'Brutal, brilliant and scurrilously funny' - MISHA GLENNY
The real scoop isn't on the front page
'As FT editor, I was a privileged interlocutor to people in power around the world, each offering unique insights into high-level decision-making and political calculation, often in moments of crisis. These diaries offer snapshots of leadership in an age of upheaval...'
Lionel Barber was Editor of the Financial Times for the tech boom, the global financial crisis, the rise of China, Brexit, and mainstream media's fight for survival in the age of fake news.
In this unparalleled, no-holds-barred diary of life behind the headlines, he reveals the private meetings and exchanges with political leaders on the eve of referendums, the conversations with billionaire bankers facing economic meltdown, exchanges with Silicon Valley tech gurus and pleas from foreign emissaries desperate for inside knowledge, all against the backdrop of a wildly shifting media landscape.
The result is a fascinating - and at times scathing - portrait of power in our modern age; who has it, what it takes and what drives the men and women with the world at their feet. Featuring close encounters with Trump, Cameron, Blair, Putin, Merkel and Mohammed Bin Salman and many more, this is a rare portrait of the people who continue to shape our world and who quite literally, make the news.
A remarkable book, alternately brutal, brilliant and scurrilously funny ...a gripping page-turner full of sharp pen portraits that reveal the anxieties and vulnerabilities of the rich and powerful. Don't miss it
—— Misha Glenny, bestselling author of MCMAFIA, now a major Netflix seriesRiveting - a world of power, money, ego and disaster, as witnessed from the front row
—— Philippe Sands, bestselling author of EAST WEST STREET and THE RATLINEGives the reader an extraordinary personal and professional insight into fifteen years of tumultuous times
—— Tony BlairVastly entertaining and insightful... Barber saw it all from the front row. An exhilarating read
—— Sir Harold Evans ex-editor of the SUNDAY TIMESA delicious romp, dripping with bon mots about the people and issues Lionel Barber encountered while ensuring the FT thrived in digital times. It's as fine an advertisement for the virtues of journalism as you will find
—— Sir Michael Moritz, Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist and sponsor of the Booker PrizeThe inside track on fifteen crucial years - from an editor who saw it all
—— Mishal Husain, presenter of Radio 4’s Today programmeA must-read by one of the world's most famous journalists ... a real page turner!
Sirs, thank you for your extremely entertaining book, which I have enjoyed most heartily. The anecdotes about the bookselling profession were as enlightening as they were amusing. Unfortunately I have mislaid the book in question as there are honestly too many books here. I mean, they're everywhere. Teetering piles of the things. If ever I see it again I'll try and say something nice about it, but by then it will undoubtedly be too late. Yours apologetically,
—— Neil GaimanA book lover's delight
—— Irish ExaminerHe writes very engagingly and extremely honestly... His sardonic wit runs through the book in a similar fashion to Shaun Bythell... But here there's more of a mischievous Terry Pratchett tone... Uproariously funny
—— Fine Books MagazineBeneath the bemusement and occasionally explosive irritation, there is a very kindly book here, about unlikely friendships and little epiphanies.
—— The ScotsmanOnce Upon A Tome is an utter treat for those of us who prefer books and reading to any other activity - the oddballs and obsessives who, like waggish Oliver Darkshire, never easily mixed with other children at school; who loathed compulsory games and sport; who have never 'texted' or 'tweeted'; and who require a lot of floor space, 'an indecent amount of square footage', to house our ever-expanding hoard.
—— Book of the Week , Daily MailWith its mixture of exaggerated misanthropy and eloquent surrealism, Once Upon a Tome calls to mind the cult television sitcom Black Books, albeit with more emphasis on matters of genuine interest to bibliophiles.
—— Times Literary SupplementMr. Darkshire is a witty observer .... All of this-the craft and customs of an esoteric enterprise; the delights and irritations of buying and selling-is conveyed in charming short chapters with titles like "Kerfuffles," and in a prim tone perfectly suited to Mr. Darkshire's subject.
—— Wall Street JournalSen's gentle memoir shed[s] light on the distant nooks of a long life of distinction. ... There is something of Tagore in the judicious Mr. Sen. He is an un?inching man of science but also insistently humane.
—— Tunku Varadarajan , Wall Street Journalwarmhearted, clear-eyed account of the formative years of his life, a book that reaches from Myanmar to Berkeley ... a testament to just how far, in one life, one man might go into that vast world ... Sen's writing style is even-keeled and gently humorous.
—— Mythili G. Rao , Washington PostPRAISE FOR AMARTYA SEN
With his masterly prose, ease of erudition and ironic humour, Sen is one of the few great world intellectuals on whom we may rely to make sense out of our existential confusion
—— Nadine GordimerAmartya Sen is one of the most distinguished minds of our time [who] enjoyably mixes moments of profundity with flashes of mischievous provocation
—— William Dalrymple , New York Review of BooksThe world's poor and dispossessed could have no more articulate or insightful a champion
—— Kofi AnnanAn accessible and exceptional humanitarian
—— Jon Snow , New StatesmanSen is one of the great minds of both the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We owe him a huge debt
—— Nicholas SternA distinguished inheritor of the tradition of public philosophy and reasoning - Roy, Tagore, Gandhi, Nehru ... if ever there was a global intellectual, it is Sen
—— Sunil Khilnani , Financial Times