Politics on the Edge: A Memoir from Within by Rory Stewart

REVIEWER: Ali Hull

BOOK: Politics on the Edge: A Memoir from Within

(Vintage, 2024) Paperback, 464pp, RRP £10.99  

Rory Stewart is one of the most interesting politicians of the 21st century so far, and this is one of the best political memoirs I have ever read (and I have read quite a few…) This book stands alongside his others as a complete joy to read, regardless of your political views. It is superbly written; funny, worrying and fascinating by turn, and always brutally honest.

Rory Stewart recently described the experience of being an MP as ‘yucky’ and that sense of distaste comes over strongly in this book – a distaste for the practice of government, for some (but not all) of his colleagues, and for himself: as time went on, he grew to loathe what he had become, and he writes of being left with a sense of ‘shame’ as he looks back on his time in Parliament.

He also shines a revealing light on the failures of the system – not least that the only way to become a minister was to be slavishly loyal – in his case, initially, to David Cameron. It takes him years to bring himself to be so. His accounts of working with Liz Truss, Priti Patel, Cameron and Boris Johnson (who eventually threw him out of the Conservative Party) are incisive. He also underlines many of the flaws in the way Parliament works: the rapid turnover of ministers, who arrive in a department to run it, usually, with no experience and no knowledge of that department’s brief, and are moved on before they have gained much of either. Cameron comes over as almost criminally smug in his judgements, with an inability to listen to those who might disagree with him.

There are many highlights to his career: the things he did achieve, by sheer determination and the exercise of a fierce intelligence and deep compassion for others. Serving in various departments, he was involved in the Foreign Office, prison reform, overseas aid, UK flood defences and the provision of broadband in his constituency. 

While the government is about to change, there is a great deal here that will be familiar to any fans of Yes Minister, or Yes, Prime Minister. Read this book – it is a real eye-opener, and will prepare you for any future encounters with your local MP, whether you support them or not.

Reviewer: Ali Hull
Ali Hull is Book Editor for Preach magazine. Fascinated by politics, she is also a former editor of the Christian Democrat newspaper.