Europe, Non-Fiction, Foreign relations,

http://nhw.livejournal.com/922824.htm...

Patten's book is a joy to read, just as Patten himself is usually a joy to listen to. Americans may well get a lot more out of it than Europeans. I may be wrong; part of the problem is that I know Patten well enough that I don't find any of the views he expresses here surprising, and in fact I already agree with most of them. He is eloquent and specific on how the British Conservative government screwed up its relationship with Europe (though his assertion that this only really happened after he was kicked out of Parliament in 1992 is at variance with my memory). He is brilliant on the need for the EU to develop a sensible approach to the rest of the world, especially the rising powers of India and China, but also in its own neighbourhood, by integrating the Balkans and Turkey through the prospect of membership. He is also brilliant on the US - writing as a passionate admirer of the American project, but one who is deeply dismayed by the Rumsfeld/Cheney domination of foreign policy. ( )

Sometimes described as the best Prime Minister the British never had. ( )

Patten's easy read style comes through again for a truly absorbing exploration of politics in the Far East, Europe and the USA. ( )