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Tommy's Peace
Tommy's Peace
Oct 11, 2024 8:22 PM

Author:Tommy Cairns Livingstone

Tommy's Peace

Thomas Cairns Livingstone began to note his day-to-day experiences in 1913 and continued faithfully for the next 20 years. With each witty and well-observed entry, he recorded events at home and abroad through times of war and peace, joy and sadness.

In this follow-up to the acclaimed Tommy's War, the focus is on the post-war years. Alongside engaging, warm-hearted recollections of everyday life with his wide circle of family, neighbours and friends, Thomas documents everything from the lingering effects of the war and post-war politics to cultural and social aspects of the era, including the rise of cinema and radio, the standard of dentists and opticians before the NHS, the partition of Ireland, the General Strike, the division of domestic labour, Clyde coastal holidays and the expansion of Glasgow. Yet, above all, Thomas affectionately chronicles family life with his hard-working wife, Agnes, and writes with pride of his clever young son, Tommy.

Illustrated throughout with black-and-white sketches from Thomas' original diaries and various other artefacts from the period, Tommy's Peace is a tremendous document of a bygone era that vividly evokes family life in Glasgow between the wars.

Reviews

[A] wonderfully evocative sequel . . . provides a fascinating history of bygone times, preserving an era of our past for the Scots of today and tomorrow

—— Daily Record

A remarkable record of a turbulent time

—— Scottish Field

Fletcher does her subject great credit. She makes no attempt to either embellish or simplify. She simply tells a cracking story well, in plenty of detail with clarity and insight

—— Sarah Vine , The Times

Tony Blair's memoir is part psychodrama, part treatise on the frustrations of leadership in a modern democracy . . . The book's broader purpose is to preserve his legacy, settling scores, justifying the war against Iraq, and mounting a defiant plea to his party to keep faith with New Labour . . . Blair comes across as likable, if manipulative; capable of dissembling while wonderfully fluent; in short, a brilliant modern politician

—— Lionel Barber , Financial Times

Will certainly become a bestseller

—— Robert McCrum , The Observer

This is substantial, thoughtful book and on the whole well written . . . My judgment is that he has for the most part set down honestly his version of events and attempted seriously to engage with his critics

—— Chris Mullin , The Times

The fascination of the British public with Tony Blair is almost on the scale of his fascination with his own relationship to them

—— Dominic Lawson , The Sunday Times

Really rather splendid

—— Jan Moir , The Daily Mail

Prime Ministerial memoirs are traditionally stuffy, formal and guarded, as though written under police caution. Tony Blair's are nothing of the sort . . . his memoirs are chummy, colloquial, impulsive and rash . . . it is this candour that makes the book so readable

—— Craig Brown , The Mail on Sunday

As this book immodestly reveals, Tony Blair was, and remains, a remarkable influence on politics, both domestically and internationally

—— Menzies Campbell , Scotland on Sunday

What makes his memoir so absorbing as it swings from clever phrase-making and thoughtful contemporary history to wince-inducing self-analysis, is that he is the first of a generation of politicians to conduct their craft as if observing themselves from an amused an admiring distance - and then to write about it. No recent politician has examines his own motives and psychology quite so candidly

—— John Rentoul , The Independent

It is the small revelations about the character of Blair that make this book worthwhile

—— Ross Clark , The Express

It's a gripping insight into the ex-PM's ten years of power . . . It will take a lot for many people to read his own take on the rise and fall of New Labour, but those that do might be reminded of the charm and vision that swept him to power

—— News of the World

I have read many a prime ministerial memoir and none of the other authors has been as self-deprecating, as willing to admit mistakes and to tell jokes against themselves

—— Mary Ann Sieghart , The Independent

Paints a candid picture of his friend and rival, Gordon Brown, and of their relationship

—— Patrick Hennessy , The Sunday Telegraph
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