A Life and a Half

Reviews / Votes

This absorbing memoir is the kind of book those who bemoan career politicians will love - it stops when Chris Bryant becomes the MP for Rhondda in 2001. Instead, it focuses on his formative years growing up with an alcoholic mother and absent father, suffering sexual abuse, and being ordained into the priesthood. A Life and a Half is perceptive, revealing and full of suppressed trauma, but it can also take on the quality of a mischievous confessional, particularly when recounting wild times in Latin American Christian ministries. Unorthodox but beguilingly human -- Ben East * Observer * Bryant is one of the handful of sitting MPs who can genuinely write. As you'd expect, A Life and a Half is a terrific book, funny, frank and moving in equal measure. It is not just a story of changing careers: in many ways it is a story of coming to terms with yourself . . . Although it is not a political memoir, it is in many ways the story of how Bryant went from a boy unable to speak to one of Parliament's most eloquent MPs. We can only hope that we might one day get an account of everything that has happened to Bryant in the 21st century that is half as good as this book -- Stephen Bush * Financial Times * Startling . . . Filled with a litany of Bryant's eye-popping escapades -- Mark Paul * Irish Times * Charming, unexpected, honest -- RORY STEWART This is a riveting read: self-revelatory, candid about others, and packed with outrageous stories . . . This autobiography is also the story of a man who survived an appalling childhood to lead a varied and worthwhile life as a priest and then politician . . . All told with self-deprecating humour -- Richard Harries * Church Times * It is often said that the politicians of today have no hinterland, but then along comes Chris Bryant with a fascinating, frank, funny and moving account of how he became one; from young Conservative wannabe actor, Welsh-born, raised in Spain, to Church of England priest, to first out gay Labour MP in Wales. And all before his fortieth birthday -- REVEREND RICHARD COLES Having previously written several books, including a biography of Glenda Jackson, he has now turned the pen on himself in A Life and a Half. It spans his mother's alcoholism, his parents' divorce, the university interlude in which he dabbled with being a member of the Conservative Party, his relationships with women and men, his spell as an Anglican vicar and the liberation of leaving the Church and discovering gay life in London in the 1990s -- Francesca Angelini * Sunday Times * An unexpected delight, fearlessly frank, just a little bit scurrilous and full of heart -- GRAHAM NORTON An MP's memoir that stops as soon as he actually arrives in parliament, focusing instead on the much more human story of how he got there -- Rachel Cunliffe * New Statesman * This is a fabulous, funny and inspiring book. Chris is one of the most important, individual and principled voices in public life. This is the unexpected and fascinating story of how he came to be who he is - and thank goodness it worked out this way! -- DAVID TENNANT Funny, moving and at times almost painfully honest, this is the best memoir of a politician's formative years since Alan Johnson's This Boy -- DAVID KYNASTON Writing about his life thus far, Chris Bryant's A Life and a Half is a terrific read, smart and reflective by turns. A life of reinvention, rich in struggle, survival and swagger, moving yet unsentimental. A book of laugh out loud encounters, deep pain and great encouragement. A book that says never underestimate the life journeys of our parliamentarians. I wonder if that courageous little boy, caring for himself, his mother and his younger brother could ever have imagined such a life. The work of care continues. Well done him -- ADJOA ANDOH Chris's reflections on adolescence, the discovery of his sexuality and his path through modern politics are rendered with striking honesty and humour . . . Rich with anecdote, at times bittersweet, often wry, and always authentic -- RICHARD ARMITAGE Riveting, raw and hilarious. Bryant's honesty is a force for good. Humble and proud in turn - you won't put this down -- HELEN LEDERER