The Third Man; Life at the Heart of New Labour

London: HarperPress [An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers], 2010. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Neale Haynes (Jacket Photography), and Peter Marlo. xxiii, [1], 584 pages. Includes 48 Illustrated Photographs in Black and White, with several more in color. Includes List of Illustrations, Acknowledgments, and Introduction, as well as an Epilogue and an Index. Chapters cover "Can You Help Me?''; Born into Labour; A Brilliant Defeat; The Three Musketeers; An Impossible Choice; Being Peter; Being Fired; Fighting, Not Quitting; Back in the Shadows; Trading Places; Comeback Kid; and The End of New Labour? In 1997 Mandelson led the team that masterminded New Labor's victorious election campaign. He was was twice a member of Blair's cabinet, and twice forced to resign in highly charged circumstances, before moving to Brussels as EU Trade Commissioner and re-inventing himself as a political force on the international stage. Then, astonishingly, he was summoned back into the cabinet for the third time, in an attempt to turn around the plummeting political fortunes of Gordon Brown--a remarkable twist in an already extraordinary political career. Much has been written about the man at the heart of New Labor. Now we hear the unvarnished truth from the man himself. Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson PC (born 21 October 1953) is a British Labour politician who served as First Secretary of State from 2009 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he was President of the Board of Trade in 1998 and from 2008 to 2010. He is the president of international think tank Policy Network, honorary president of the Great Britain-China Centre, and chairman of strategic advisory firm Global Counsel. Mandelson is often referred to as a Blairite. From 1985 to 1990, Mandelson served as Labour's Director of Communications. He was one of the first to whom the term 'spin doctor' was applied and gained the nickname 'the Prince of Darkness' because of his 'ruthlessness' and 'media savvy'. He served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004 and held a number of Cabinet positions under Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He was the European Commissioner for Trade between 2004 and 2008. Mandelson was one of several key individuals responsible for the rebranding of the Labour Party as New Labour before its subsequent victory in the 1997 election. He was twice forced to resign from the Cabinet before leaving Parliament to take up an appointment as a European Commissioner. He later rejoined the Cabinet for a third time after being created a Life Peer, sitting on the Labour benches in the House of Lords. He is the only person to have held the position of First Secretary of State as a Peer. The revelatory memoir of one of New Labor's three founding architects is devoted to the "soap opera" years of Labour government and the breakdown of relationships between Mandelson, Tony Blair, and Gordon Brown. Drawing heavily on detailed diary notes he took during the events that shaped the British government for more than 25 years. Peter Mandelson tells his story of a life played out in the back rooms and on the front lines of the Labour Party during its unprecedented three terms in government in this mixture of autobiography, personal reflection, and political history. He began writing the book while serving as European Commissioner and completed it since leaving office in May 2010. His revelations include that the relationship between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown became so hostile that Blair described his chancellor as "mad, bad, dangerous, and beyond redemption" and likened Brown's behavior to that of a "mafioso" in his dealings with him. Much has been written about Mandelson as the person at the heart of the New Labour project, but here is the unvarnished truth from the man himself.