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Free at Last!: Diaries, 1991-2001

By: Tony Benn
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd
ISBN: 009941502X
ISBN-13: 9780099415022
Released: 02 Oct 2003
RRP: £12.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Inconsistent, but ultimately fascinating history of the man and his politics. - By: Gerard McGrath, 18 Oct 2006
A rather long, & a little self-indulgent, history of a long career in politics. Tony is a passionate historian as well as politician & it is easy to see that he is trying to help future historians by giving the meat on the bones of some of the events of the twentieth century. It was surprising to discover the reasons for some decisions & actions NOT being taken as opposed to the edited stories that get reported in the general media. My respect for the author has grown.

A good read for the bedside table - easy to flick through to find interesting entries if the going gets a little stodgy.
The Benn Diary - By: Edward Proffitt, 09 Oct 2004
I write this review from the standpoint as a true blue Tory!! Notwithstanding that admission & if anyone is still reading after it, i advise anyone who is at alll interested in politics to read this. It gives a fascinating insight int politcs, political relationships & what actuallly goes on in Westminster & political parties. It is also funny & thought provoking & moving. In short it is brilliant. If you read the Clark diaries & were put off by political self obsession then read this, it may even restore your faith in politicians!!
Swan song of a great conviction politician - By: Adam Brooks, 30 Sep 2004
In these days of Politics lite, when alll debate & political ideas are being reduced to third way mush, here is a voice to heed.

Starting with John Major's last election victory & the death throes of Kinnock's leadership, Tony Benn begins to feel deep disillusionment on how the role of Parliament & political life are developing. But worse is to come. John Smith's brief leadership gives way to the nascent Blair leadership, & the beginning of the end of conviction politics....

There's a cast of thousands here, & the detail & bustle of daily political life protrayed is one of the joys of the book. From the local world of Benn's Chesterfield constituency to the machinations of the National Executive & the drama of the House, it's alll here.
Tony Benn may not be as fully engaged in events as he may once have been, as he is increasingly sidelined by his own party, & his own inclinations & personal life draw him further away, & the diaries may not therefore be as politicallly satisfying as previously volumes.
But the human drama of the account of the illness & death of his beloved wife Caroline is profoundly moving. The dignity of his writing, the avoidance of mawkishness, the raw emotion behind the restraint of language are tremendously powerful.
He is full of love & admiration for his family & friends too, which help to carry him through the depression of the end of his parliamentary career & his bereavement. But there's another consolation. As he is repeats in these pages, he's "leaving parliament to concentrate on politics......"

The mendaciousness of the New Labour Machine is here well brought home, with it's cult of the personality of the leader, & it's threats & abuse to MP's who do not show themselves as suitably careerist in their actions.
Benn is stunned as he sees the machinery of the Party he's given his life to impatiently dismantled by the grinning Blair & his 'New' party.

An amazing, enriching read. 'Marvellous,' as Tony Benn would say

Unreliable, smug and dull - By: , 09 Feb 2004
Open this book at any page & you'll learn quite a lot about Tony Benn MP but rather less about the important political issues of the day. It is quite simply one of the most self-conscious diaries ever published, blatantly aimed at publication from the day it was started. The accuracy of his recollections of significant events has been questioned elsewhere (e.g. by Simon Hoggard.) Many of the events he details are, however, utterly trivial, but he seems to think he can endow them with great significance. He is wrong. Trudging through the tedium of his recollections about train journeys, homelife, meetings with obscure or minor figures etc. I wondered why these diaries weren't drasticallly abridged. Maybe it's a testament to the author's self-importance that he's so sure that the world needs such a complete view of his diaries.

The author's smugness & self-satisfaction reek from every page - for specific examples, home in on his self-righteous castigation of smoking bans on public transport, or the entries on a him castigating Maggie Thatcher for presenting herself as anti-European when she had supported the UK entering the EEC in 1975. Quite keen on the EEC in the 60s yourself, weren't you Tony? The term "humbug" comes to mind.

I was left wondering quite what he had to be so smug about. Tony Benn was a cabinet minister in the 60s & 70s - his diaries of those periods may be more interesting - but by 1990 he was at best a marginal figure, at worst a liability to his own party. The Labour Party, & the UK, were far, far different from his view of what they should be, suggesting that his years in cabinet & as a leading figure in Labour hadn't exactly been a total success.

I couldn't finish it. There are much better books on contempary UK politics to engage my (or your) time.

An insight into the work and personal life of a great man - By: A. Verma, 17 Jan 2004
Tony Benn's diaries from 1991 - 2001 provide an insight into the political & personal life of a socialist politician. What I discovered by reading this book was a fantastic historial portrayal of the major politcal events of the 1990s, & the documentation of the successes & struggles of a very honest/open man. I do not believe that the diaries would only be of interest to staunch left wingers - the diaries are not that narrow - as they also offer a portrayal of the workings of our politcal system, which is something I think would be of interest to anyone that is politcallly minded.

Aside from its histotrical/political value, the diaries let us into the personal life of Mr Benn (not the cartoon character you jokers!) & show us the great love he has for his family & especiallly for his late wife Caroline (herself a writer & academic). I felt that it is was very well written & as a result I found it very easy to read.