The Book Club

James Heale and Sebastian Payne: Out of the Blue and The Fall of Boris Johnson

41 min listen

In This Episode

In this week’s Book Club podcast, I’m talking to two of the brave souls who turn recent political dramas into the sort of quickly written books we might call the second draft of history. I’m joined by the FT’s Sebastian Payne, author of The Fall of Boris Johnson, and our own James Heale, co-author of a Liz Truss biography, Out Of The Blue, which notoriously was so rapidly overtaken by events that she was out before it was. They tell me how they disentangle their duties in their day jobs as political reporters from what they owe their book readers, how differently sources will speak to authors than journalists, what the day to day press got wrong – and whether they think history will look more kindly on their subjects than the front pages.

Comments

Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.

Already a subscriber? Log in