Have I Got Views for You (Boris Johnson)*****

Yes, I did notice this isn’t chick lit! But it was part of the 3for2 offer, and Boris Johnson is always adorable on Have I got News for You. Besides, I’d call myself a book fan, not a chick lit fan. And this is a book. Okay, maybe it isn’t a book, as it’s a collection of articles that were not written for any kind of book, but it is a book now.

It’s probably fair to say I know nothing about politics. I’m just not interested. That’s probably not a good thing to admit to as a general rule, but I’m not saying it to make myself sound cool, I’m making it to make the book sound cool, which is quite different.

The thing about Have I Got Views for You is that it was about something I wouldn’t usually find enjoyable, but I loved it anyway. It’s like Anybody Out There? with Anna’s makeup job. No, I haven’t got heavily involved in politics since reading this book. I’m too busy being heavily involved in reading. But I was interested in politics for the duration of this book, and I would most certainly consider reading another political book by Johnson in the future, and I think that is a sign that Have I Got Views for You is a great book because that’s what great books are supposed to do: give you access to a new world.

It’s not an autobiography, or any kind of story, unless it could be called the political story of Great Britain. Johnson wrote the articles for various papers throughout his career. But anyone who is a fan of Boris Johnson the person would probably enjoy this book because, without giving the impression that he has tried to make it all about him, Boris does have a starring role. And this is why I love the book. I love Boris, and I’m interested in what he has to say about anything. Despite the intelligence in his writing, you can see his bumbling character in every article, and I just want to give him a hug. (I’ve actually had a dream where I met Boris Johnson and asked him for a hug, but I don’t think it’s really the sort of thing I ought to try doing in real life.)

It does not seem as though Johnson aimed his articles at people who had little or no knowledge of politics. On the contrary, it does not seem in any way ‘dumbed down’, and covers some quite complicated issues. Very little is directly explained in a way that is likely to slow down and annoy a more knowledgeable reader. As I’m not a knowledgeable reader myself, I sometimes had to guess what Johnson was on about, but the book mostly made sense to me. Johnson is a wonderful writer. On Have I Got News for You, he’s not well-known for his ability to get a point across, but he does it beautifully in writing.

Johnson has also written fiction, which I haven’t read, but Have I Got Views for You suggests that he does this rather well. He captures the personalities of the people he meets in a really amusing yet usually affectionate way. Even those I haven’t heard of, I feel I do know a lot about when Johnson has finished with them. Those I do know are instantly recognisable. Johnson seems to enjoy meeting all kinds of people, even though he does sometimes feel like an idiot afterwards. And it’s great to find someone who agrees with me about Tony Blair, although the lovely Boris puts it far more kindly than I would. There’s just something remarkably inoffensive about Boris Johnson.

Of course, it must not be forgotten that politics is a matter of opinion, and that Johnson is almost certainly going to be biased in favour of the Tories almost all the time. If I read a book written by a highly literate and witty member of the Labour Party (if such a creature exists) about all the same incidents, it is possible I would appreciate their point of view too. But, as a form of literary entertainment, Have I Got Views for You is one of the finest books I have read.