000			03016cam a2200313Mi 4500
001			u80144
005			20230113163236.0
007			ta
008			170703s2017 enkafc 001 0aeng
020			_a9780241275597
040			_aAU@ _beng _cAU@ _erda _dOCLCO _dUK-LoPHL
082	0	4	_a920
100	1		_aPatten, Christopher, _cBaron Patten of Barnes, _d1944- _eauthor. _991122
245	1	0	_aFirst confession : _ba sort of memoir / _cChris Patten.
264		1	_aLondon : _bAllen Lane, Penguin Books, _c2017.
300			_a311 pages, 16 pages of unnumbered plates : _billustrations, portraits
336			_atext _2rdacontent
336			_astill image _2rdacontent
337			_aunmediated _2rdamedia
338			_avolume _2rdacarrier
520			_aMost politicians write autobiographies to 'set the record straight' and provide retrospective justification for their careers. That is not the case with this book. 'It occurred to me that to track down myself would enable me to discuss an issue that had begun to intrigue me, namely the relationship between politics and identity, the things that had shaped me and whether and how they had come to reflect my life and opinions. As I wrote, the question of identity moved from the wings to centre stage, and roiled politics and nations on both sides of the Atlantic.' 'Who am I? Who are we?' Chris Patten's career has taken him from the outer London suburbs to the House of Commons, a seat in the Cabinet, last Governor of Hong Kong, Chairman of the BBC and Chancellor of Oxford University. About all of these he is enlightening and entertaining. He has unexpected and telling things to say about each of the three Prime Ministers for whom he worked - Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher and John Major. But his political heroes - Baldwin, Macmillan, Butler - came from an earlier time: he is proud to be 'wet', and reckons all his paladins were pretty damp themselves. But more, Patten uses each phase of his life as a spur to reflect upon its contemporary situation - education, America, conservatism, Ireland, China, Europe and finally the question of links between violence and religion. Unlike one No.10 press secretary, Patten definitely 'does God'. At the end, the reader has an impression of someone who knows himself as well as any of us can, and who continues to think, passionately and intelligently, about the world around him. Wise, funny and opinionated, First Confession is a different sort of memoir, a meditation on personal and political identity which, in an age of simplification, reminds us of the complexities of both.
600	1	0	_aPatten, Christopher, _cBaron Patten of Barnes, _d1944- _991122
610	1	0	_aGreat Britain. _bParliament. _bHouse of Commons. _948
610	2	0	_aConservative Party (Great Britain) _9646
650		0	_aPoliticians _zGreat Britain _xBiography. _942890
651		0	_aHong Kong (China) _xPolitics and government. _921937
651		0	_aHong Kong (China) _xHistory _yTransfer of Sovereignty from Great Britain, 1997 _916690
942			_n0
999			_c71852 _d71852