‘I felt like Achilles in a hard hat’: an extract from Boris Johnson’s ‘alternative’ memoir | Ian Martin
Unleashed, the former PM’s account of his days in office, is published today. But other versions of the truth are also available …
- Ian Martin is a comedy writer whose credits include The Thick of It and Veep. Unhinged: A Parody is published on 10 October
When it was announced that Boris Johnson was to publish an honest account of his time in Downing Street, we all thought: how honest would it be? Because for three magical years, Britain’s greatest prime minister showed us exactly what extreme honesty in politics looked like. Would his innate modesty allow him to reveal the full extent of his selfless service, his valour, his tireless dedication behind the scenes to Build Boris’s Brexit Britain Back Better?
No. He has characteristically omitted from his book all the Cobra meetings he attended in secret, for reasons of national security. He makes no mention of the Christmas he spent personally packing thousands of AstraZeneca vaccine shots. He excludes altogether the late monarch’s adulation of him, how she would dress as a pearly queen for his visits, how they would sing old cockney songs into the small hours.
Ian Martin is a comedy writer whose credits include The Thick of It and Veep. This is an edited extract from Unhinged: A Parody by Ian Martin
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