Monday 3 November 2008

Alastair Campbell takes a verbal thrashing

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Links on Tell Me a Story

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Verbal thrashing.


Why is it the good and the great think once they’ve made it elsewhere, they can write???

Alastair Campbell's recent venture into fiction – a book called All in the Mind - took a verbal thrashing in the Sunday Times.

The reviewer, Peter Kemp, vented his feelings about Tony Blair's former spin-doctor and his book with, "Anyone for whom the name Alastair Campbell conjures up the image of a glowering bully, professionally adept at manipulating words to suit his purposes, will be confounded by it."

He went on to say, "The personality emanating from his debut novel is that of a swimmy-eyed sentimentalist whose verbal and inventive powers are remarkably meagre."

Superhuman patience.

And that was probably the most pleasant thing the journalist had to say. He continued slating Alastair Campbell with things like, "Slackly put-together sentences," and “Any reader persevering to this point,{the end} will have displayed superhuman patience."

The only problem is, verbal thrashing or not, Alastair Campbell will STILL outsell struggling authors who can out write him a hundred-fold.

The fact that his name has celebrity status will be more than enough to send him into the best selling list – Shit!