Boris Johnson Unleashed: Puns, prose but too little punch

Let’s face it: if you aren’t a Boris fan or someone inclined to read every political biography, it’s unlikely you will pick up this book. When I told my brother I was reading it, his response was: “Why would you want to relive that mess?!?”. My mother was more pointed: “I’m not reading anything by that little s**t”. 

I generally enjoy a good political biography, something that offers a glimpse into the inner workings of Downing Street and, ideally, some behind-the-scenes gossip and intrigue. With Boris’s book titled Unleashed, I was hoping for plenty of the latter. Sadly, there isn’t much. At the very least I was expecting more than a page on Gove’s Brutus-esque U-turn over their joint leadership bid; all we get is a single line intimating that ‘George Osborne had something to do with it’. 

So, in the absence of any toast-dropping moments, what does Unleashed offer? Well, whether friend or foe, you can’t deny he writes well, as you would expect from the former editor of the Spectator and regular Telegraph columnist (something he’s keen to remind us about). It’s easy to follow, amusing in places and serious in others. True to Boris’ style, it’s packed with more puns and metaphors than an episode of Have I Got News for You. He also has a knack for keeping readers engaged with classical and historical references, from the Fall of Rome (a refrain throughout the book) to Pericles and Odysseus. No surprises here, perhaps, but he also throws in references to Lord of the Rings, the Beano and Billy Bunter for good measure.  

Unleashed is essentially a series of mini political essays, framed from the vantage point of someone unable to speak their mind at the time. There may be some truth in that, although they often veer into ‘everyone else is to blame’ territory. Passages related to Brexit and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, for example, are likely to make his critics’ blood boil.

Under different circumstances, this could be a Conservative manifesto, a big-thinking vision for post-Brexit Britain. But that ship has clearly sailed…

While it certainly covers some of the most febrile moments of his career, Unleashed feels a little unfinished, falling far short of a full autobiography (for better or worse we can assume that will come in time). It’s divided into three distinct periods: Boris’s life as London Mayor, foreign secretary and PM, with occasional flashbacks to his time as a correspondent in Brussels, including trips to Kosovo and Baghdad. By his own omission, he was a well travelled foreign secretary and doesn’t blink when describing the luxury of being hosted around the world, eating in fine restaurants and quaffing Chateauneuf-du-Pape. In fact, he makes no effort to water down his image as a bon vivant, approaching life with considerable positivity and flair, although this sunny outlook inevitably takes a knock when he moves into Number 10. 

It’s also worth noting how much of Boris’s own brand of serious political commentary is included, shaped by two decades on the front-line. Under different circumstances, this could be a Conservative manifesto, a big-thinking vision for post-Brexit Britain. That ship has clearly sailed so what Unleashed delivers instead is a polished portrait of Boris Johnson – by Boris Johnson.

It’s a powerful if slightly revisionist account of his legacy, honing the image of a big intellect working in tandem with a bumbling charm. 

If Boris was already your ‘buccaneering, lovable-rogue, man-of-the-people’, this book will only add to the mystique. For everyone else, it lacks that compulsive ‘look behind the curtain’ readability that would elevate it from political curio to a must-read for the masses.

• Harry Owen is Chief Operating Officer at City AM