Call me unpretentious

Ian Hamilton

  • Major Major: Memories of an Older Brother by Terry Major-Ball
    Duckworth, 167 pp, £12.95, August 1994, ISBN 0 7156 2631 0

When John Major ascended to 10 Downing Street, the wits were at first unsure quite how to set about him. There was the obvious, the elementary ‘grey’ approach: the Burton suits, the haircut, the delicious fry-ups and so on. On this reading, Major could be presented as a drearier-than-either cross between James Stewart and J. Alfred Prufrock. He was prime minister by accident, or for-a-day. He’d won the premiership in a raffle, or had it laid on for him by Jim’ll Fix It.

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