A review by booksrockcal
Taken As Red: How the Election Was Won and Lost by Anushka Asthana

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.75

Last year i got interested in the British political scene and the election called for last summer as our political situation over here was a dumpster fire.  I started by reading a biography of Keir Starmer and listening to The Rest is Politics, a podcast with former Tory and Laborites, which is how I heard about this book. it was not available on the US so i ordered from Blackwell’s in England. The book was interesting and enlightening, providing a background and history of the modern day Labour party that goes far beyond what was portrayed in the Keir Starmer biography (and I came away from the biography greatly admiring Starmer from a worning/middle class family and state school to Leeds U, Oxford, a career as an international human rights lawyer and then as chief prosecutor of the UK prior to becoming a politician) . The machinations related to Starmer’s assumption of the position as Labour leader were unknown to me and not covered in the other book.  The author clearly knows her subject. This is a terrific book and it stopped short of being 5 stars only because of my own lack of knowledge about the details of British politics- in some sections the author talked about people and events assuming knowledge that i didn’t have. But I’m working in acquiring more knowledge about the British system and this book provided a lot of key background.