First Confession: A Sort of Memoir

Chris Patten's memoir, First Confession, is a meditation on personal and political identity, showing the complexities of both in an age of simplification. It is a defence of liberal conservatism and draws on his experience of four controversial institutions to swell the list of intelligent and cultured memoirs by front-line politicians.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 28 June 2018
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Most politicians use autobiographies to set the record straight. This is a different sort of memoir. Chris Patten, a self-confessed wet European from parliament to Hong Kong and beyond, creates a meditation on personal and political identity that, in an age of simplification, shows the complexities of both.

A defence of liberal conservatism ... If old-style centrism is to stage a comeback and reason to supplant stridency and authoritarianism, be it in the West or the East, the moderates can wave Patten's book on their way to their barricades.

Jonathan Fenby, Financial Times

Vivid, very well-written, First Confession joins the highest tier of recent works by British politicians. Paschal Donohoe, Irish Times

Draws on his experience of four controversial institutions - the Tory party, the Vatican, the Chinese government, and the BBC - to swell the tiny list of intelligent and cultured memoirs by front-line politicians.

Mark Lawson, New Statesman, Books of the Year

Weight: 262g
Dimension: 192 x 121 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780141983875