# John Major: The Autobiography

John Major: The Autobiography (sometimes simply The Autobiography) is a memoir by former British Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party John Major, published by HarperCollins, on 11 October 1999. It covers Major's life up until that point, including his decade on the frontbench under Margaret Thatcher and his time in Number 10.

## Synopsis

* This article is part of a series aboutJohn Major
Electoral history
MP for Huntingdon
1990 budget
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Premiership
First ministry and term (November 1990 – April 1992)
1990 leadership election
Ministry
Citizen's Charter
Charter Mark
Cones Hotline
Early 1990s recession
Gulf War
1992 general election
Second ministry and term (April 1992 – May 1997)
Ministry
Black Wednesday
National Lottery
Further and Higher Education Act 1992
Grant-maintained schools
Maastricht Treaty
rebels
Northern Ireland peace process
Downing Street mortar attack
Downing Street Declaration
1993 reviews of the British honours system
Council Tax
Child Support Agency
1993 vote of confidence
Back to Basics
Privatisation of British Rail
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
1995 Conservative Party leadership election
The Cullen Reports
Cash for Questions
Committee on Standards in Public Life
Arms-to-Iraq affair
Scott Report
United Kingdom BSE outbreak
Wirral South by-election
Resignation Honours
Bibliography
The Autobiography
More Than a Game
My Old Man :
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The memoir covers Major's life from his family origins, through his conservative "apprenticeships" of the Young Conservatives and local government, as well as his two bids for parliament in St Pancras, to his win in 1976 in Huntingdonshire. It goes on to cover his 11 years in various cabinet posts. Much of the book's coverage of Major's premiership is focussed on the country's relationship with Europe, and the problems that caused with in the Conservative Party.

## Publication

The autobiography was published in serialised extracts in the week leading up to its release.

## Reception
### Critical reception

Upon release, John Major: The Autobiography was generally well-received. The Guardian gave the work an average rating of 8.6 out of 10 based on reviews from multiple British newspapers.
Writing in The Guardian, Kenneth Baker, a Home Secretary under Major, opined that it was "a balanced book from a balanced man", treating Major's colleagues with even handedness. Comparing the book to the simultaneously released memoir by Norman Lamont, In Office, a review in The Daily Telegraph found Major's the superior book, having a much broader scope. In fact, the reviewer thought it the "finest government memoir since Nigel Lawson's", and "deeply-moving" at times. Roy Jenkins, in the Evening Standard, concurred placing it "well within the higher range of political pièces justificatives" and felt it a "partial but rational chronical of events". A review in The Sun Times was particularly drawn to the description of Major's childhood and family.
At the end of the year, the Historian and biographer John Campbell called it one of his books of the year. In retrospect the book was still held in high regard, with political biographer Sonia Purnell calling it a "readable tome about an ambitious politician" and the i newspaper calling it one of the top 20 political memoirs, with Major's writing being "candid, frank and self-reflective".

### Commercial reception

As the book released on the same day as Norman Lamont's In Office, there was interest in which of the two memoirs would be more successful. Even before they went on sale, Major was seen as the winner with his launch drawing hundreds, far more that Lamont's. The Autobiography would go on to be a number one bestseller surpassing autobiographies by Alex Ferguson and Geri Halliwell. Within about a month it had sold about 70,000, according to the publisher (compared to 619 for In Office). In the end, sales totaled 91,513, according Nielsen Book Research.