Last Man Standing

Memoirs of a Political Survivor

By: Jack Straw

Narrated by: Jack Straw

Length: 19 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

The autobiography of Jack Straw - an MP for 33 years and at the heart of government throughout the longest-serving Labour administration in history.

As a small boy in Epping Forest, Jack Straw could never have imagined that one day he would become Britain's Lord Chancellor. As one of five children of divorced parents, he was bright enough to get a scholarship to a direct-grant school, but spent his holidays as a plumbers' mate for his uncles to bring in some much-needed extra income. Yet he spent 13 years and 11 days in government, including long and influential spells as Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary.

This is the story of how he got there. His memoirs offer a unique insight into the complex, sometimes self-serving but always fascinating world of British politics and reveals the toll that high office takes, but, more importantly, the enormous satisfaction and extraordinary privilege of serving both your constituents and your country. Straw’s has been a very public life, but he reveals the private face, too, and offers listeners a vivid and authoritative insight into the Blair/Brown era and, indeed, the last 40 years of British politics.

©2012 Jack Straw (P)2013 Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd

Critic reviews

”Straw has an ear for anecdote and quotation, and is honest about his difficult early life; self-justifying, but also self-aware about his record, including as Foreign Secretary during the Iraq war” (Books of the Year, Independent on Sunday)