Readable story of political awakening by a formerly left-wing Guardian journalist. His understanding of foreign affairs was mugged by 9/11, and his attitude to crime was mugged rather more violently. As he says, to be in favour of gay rights and free speech now marks you out as a right wing lunatic Islamophobe. It’s nice to have the company.

Picked this up on a whim in the bookshop last week. A fascinating read, with some remarkable passages, but you do have to wonder how far the presentation is being tweaked for electoral purposes. Even so, he has clearly learnt some personal humility from his experiences, and that can only be a good thing. It has made me want to find a really good biography of him, to see how far his emphasis on personal honour etc is reconcilable with the Keating scandal. Well worth reading.

(NB I now plan to read Obama’s autobiography as well, just to be fair!)