Book description
Making peace in Northern Ireland was the greatest success of the
Blair government, and one of the greatest achievements in British
politics since the Second World War. In Jonathan Powell's masterly
account we learn just how close the talks leading to the Good Friday
agreement came to collapse and how the parties finally reached a deal.
Pithy, outspoken and precise, Powell, Tony Blair's chief of staff
and chief negotiator, gives us that rarest of things, a true insider's
account of politics at the highest level. He demonstrates how the
events in Northern Ireland have valuable lessons for those seeking to
end conflict in other parts of the world and shows us how the process
of making peace is sometimes messy and often blackly comic.
After studying history at Oxford and the University of Pennsylvania,
Jonathan Powell worked for the BBC and Granada TV before joining the
Foreign Office in 1979. In 1994 Mr Blair, then Leader of the Opposition,
poached him to join his `kitchen cabinet' as his Chief of Staff. When
Labour achieved its landslide victory in 1997 Powell was at the heart of
the Downing Street machine. He was the only senior member of staff to
remain at Blair's side throughout his time at the top of British
politics. He has always maintained a low profile and has never before
told his story.
