When Michael
Heseltine wrote his acclaimed autobiography, Life in the Jungle, he
assumed his political career was over. He returned to Haymarket, his publishing
business, and intended to explore more of the world and pursue his passions outside
politics.
His
assumption was wrong. David Cameron called him, tentatively at first but
gradually with increased responsibility, back to the corridors of power.
This second
memoir is a potpourri of reminiscences about Heseltine's life and previously
unexplored aspects of his stellar political career. But the main reason for Heseltine
taking up his pen again has been to look back on the fundamental changes he was
able to mastermind while in government and to set out the policies that are
urgently needed to unite the country by driving growth, increasing prosperity
and restoring hope. He combines this with new revelations about the seismic
Westland scandal, the establishment cover-up that caused him to resign from
Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet, and a damning assessment of what he considers the
grievous act of self-harm inflicted on Britain by Brexit.
This
extraordinary new memoir offers an urgent agenda to rebuild Britain from one of
our last great statesmen, who has been at the forefront of business and
politics for the past sixty years.