Customer Reviews
Not always well tempered - By: Mr. David Cheshire, 23 Oct 2007 
There seems to be a rule: the worse the politician the better the memoirs. Heath's aren't bad. He was an odd figure. Chosen as Tory leader to rival the modern Wilson style, he proved to be an awkward, lonely & rather inflexible Prime Minister. His Premiership is often judged a failure. This book doesn't reveal much of his emotional life. He confesses that "I am told I do not always find it easy to express my appreciation of people to their faces." Otherwise the private man remains just that.
And yet this book goes a long way to rescue his reputation. Heath goes back earlier than I had realised. His Europeanism was sincerely & profoundly rootedin 1940's wartime duty as an artillery commanderin the allied invasion of Germany. As Tory Chief Whipin the 1950's he held his party together during the Suez debacle & emerged with honour (unlike Prime Minster Eden, here described telling his cabinet secretary to burn incriminating documents). Heath grappled early with deep & intractable issues, especially Britain's long term economic decline, immigration, Powell, Ulster (the IRA bombed his home) & above all unruly & over-wheening trade union power. Long before there was any sort of consensus about how to deal with them (the Thatcher/Blair generation's achievement) Heath's old fashioned Butler/Macmillan one-nation Toryism simply did not measure up to the awfulness of trying to govern Britainin the 1970's.
Heath's Europeanism never falters & reflects a very English pragmtatism. On the vexed issue of losing sovreignty to Europe Heath relies on the simple formula that we are pooling, not surrendering it. On the Federal question he calls the EU "sui generis", neither free trade area nor super statein waiting, never imitated & always different to any abstract theory or model.
Heath's book has a few gems which enliven a sometimes not lively narrative. Visiting Soviet leaders Khrushchev & Bulganin could not grasp Heath's explanation of what he did as a whip ("How do you mean, persuade them to support you? Surely you just tell them to?")
Perhaps two moments define the man. Having achieved his poltical dream of actually getting the UK into the EU, this classless moderniser turns his back on the burgeoning celebrations, retires alone to his solitary room at Number Ten where he gather strength by playing a Bach prelude from the Well-Tempered Clavier on his clavichord. The other, 1968 & he quotes his old enemy Enoch Powell as Health Minister sayingin the cabinet room that there was no need to cede a nurses' pay claim because " I can bringin all the nurses we need from the west Indies." Game set & match there, Enoch. Overall not an easy read; but then not an easy man.
Very interesting read, and far better than expected - By: Darren Simons, 30 Nov 2006 I expected this book to be a winge... why the press treated Heath unfairly, why Margaret Thatcher did it all wrong by not listening to Uncle Ted, why Saddam Hussein is actually a very nice chap etc.. & yet I finished the bookin absolute admiration for the longest serving MPin Parliament.
Edward Heath paints a fairly honest view of his life, of his achievements & regrets as a politician, of his interests outside of politics, notably music & sailing. He writes openly & honestly of his distain for Margaret Thatcher & regardless of the reader's opinion on whether he is right or not, I felt as a reader he was being honest with what his feelings were.
Heath also reflects fairly openly on where his failures as Prime Minster were, often with the apparent view that it would have been the same for anyone elsein his position, but nonetheless it is a reflection. He paints himself as an interesting combination of a man of absolute principle as well as a very stubborn man.
Most enjoyable for mein his book though is his explanation & nurturing of his long-standing beliefin his own political views shown throughout the book as well as his views of Macmillan, Eden, & of course Thatcher & Major. A cynic might argue that his views are biasedin his favour... but that's only fair, they were his views after all.
A valuable insider's view of British politics - By: , 26 Dec 2001 
A fascinating insight into the mechanisms of a political genius. Heath's individual & honest style harks back to an age when British politics was a fascinating & open political battleground rather than the stagemanaged posturing served up today. This book will appeal to Westminster junkies from acroos the political spectrum. At times during the excesses of the Thatcher government Heath spoke with an honesty & openess more harmful to her powerbase than Neil Kinoock's opposition. It took the rest of the party a further eleven years to concur with his reservations.
Intersting structure but useful all the same. - By: , 11 Dec 1999 
I felt that Sir Edward's book, although a welcome addition to the shelves of any student of politics or modern history, is writtenin a way that is poorly organised. Leaving the reader slightly curious at his unusual style of writing, it still contains some very useful chapters that kept me reading. Heath's premiership, was an important one for the UK as it lead us into the EEC & brought about the clash with the unions. The book deals with the complex issue of the original European negotiations & with his role as Chief Whipin the Suez Crisis of 1956. It is worth buying to read his views on how the crisis could have thrown the party into opposition. When reading the earlier chapters readers can appreciate fully quite how long Sir Edward's career & involvementin politics has been. His involvement after his premiership is considerable & covers many areas. Although I have read Heath's book a better suggestion is John Campbell's 'Edward Heath A Biography' which gives a good account of the key elements with a better structure & is much easier to read. I didn't find 'The course of my Life' an easy book to read at all.
Great insight into the mind of a gentleman - By: , 05 Dec 1999 From start to finish I was engrossed by the charm of a man whom has been ridiculed by most of the Britsh press & Thatcher's chronies. Admits his frailties, but has kept to what he has thought right, not always what you findin some peoplein the House. A truly, truly great read.
