Lynn Barber

Tom Bower pulls his punches with his life of Boris Johnson

The PM’s lies, womanising and general unreliability can all be explained by his unhappy childhood, according to this largely sympathetic biography

The spectre of Stanley: Boris Johnson’s chaotic upbringing has scarred him for life, according to Tom Bower. Credit: Alamy

Tom Bower explains in his acknowledgements that this is not an authorised biography and he did not seek Boris Johnson’s co-operation. Instead, he followed his usual biographical method of interviewing well over 100 people who knew Boris, some named, some not. Obvious sources are his mother Charlotte, his sister Rachel, his first wife Allegra, his long-serving mistress Petronella Wyatt, but not his second wife Marina, nor his current fiancée Carrie Symonds.

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