‘Some recollections may vary’. The iconic words of the late Queen in response to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s interview with Oprah Winfrey. Prepare to hear rather less polite variations on the same theme on 10th October when Boris Johnson’s autobiography, Unleashed, hits bookshops.
We’re told it will be his version of his time in office: “unvarnished, uncensored, unleashed”. Which will make a real change from the usual restraint he shows when expressing himself. Still, with the many thousands of pages dedicated to the man over the past decade or so it will be very interesting to see how he himself accounts for certain parts of his mayoralty and premiership - the 2012 Olympics, prorogation, Partygate, we’ve been promised a full account of his thinking behind every key event and decision. No word yet on whether there’s a chapter on his private life, for which he has always maintained a determined, jauntily evasive silence.
In her first Tatler column, originally published on 13 June, Cleo Watson reflected on an emotional start to the campaigning
The proposed cover is certainly eye-catching and in its own way very telling. If you’ve not seen it, it’s a black and white photo of him standing in his shirt sleeves, his hands clasped in front of him with back lighting that picks out his distinctive white fluffy hair and leaves his face completely in shadow. There’s a theory that if your silhouette is recognisable then you’re truly famous, and there’s no mistaking Johnson in this picture. But it's the seemingly faceless or masked quality to the subject that is most revealing. I’ve often wondered about the real face of Boris Johnson.
Delve into the Tatler archive and revisit our 2015 interview with Johnson's late mother, Charlotte Johnson: family matriarch, creative genius, generous spirit and a source of boundless strength and love to her four children Boris, Rachel, Leo and Jo
People think of him as blustering and buffoonish, BJ, Bozza, BoJo etc. But it often felt like an identity he assumed (his family call him ‘Al’; Alexander is his first name) and a personality he was somewhat scathing, even hateful of. In my experience, when his time was his own he was quiet, bookish and keen for his own space. When under real pressure the jovial mask slipped and there were flashes of, and there’s no easy way to put this, extreme nastiness. Will it be that we actually get an uncensored ‘Al’ holding the pen in Unleashed?
Of course, Johnson has made the news this week for other reasons too. You might have noticed that the Conservative campaign is not going well. Johnson has been putting his shoulder to the wheel of some candidates by signing letters and making videos to support them. There’s an argument that he should have been brought back into the fold at the beginning of the campaign (or sooner) to help save so-called Red Wall seats, but this was considered a bad bet as putting him back in the spotlight would only turn off voters in safe Southern Tory seats. As ever, he’s showing the need to handle him with the kind of gloves generally reserved for mucking about with Plutonium. In any event, it turns out he’s on holiday.
As Boris Johnson announces he is to release a memoir, revisit Tatler's April 2020 cover story which went inside the world of the then-Carrie Symonds…
So back to the book. As a writer myself, I’ll admit I’m already sick with jealousy at the number of copies he’ll undoubtedly sell. I also wonder when his other book, the one about Shakespeare, will be published. It was certainly hanging over him the whole of his premiership, a feeling I can now relate to now I have another novel due in to my editor in the autumn. For this one, though, we can expect scathing reviews from the usual quarters (“Why is this not a 100,000 word apology for Brexit??”) and unbridled compliments from others. He’ll presumably have some scores to settle and, you never know, perhaps some serious reflection about his own flaws and failings. One thing’s for sure, though: say what you like about the guy, like his speech in Parliament on the occasion of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, it’ll be pretty damn good.
