The gripping, remarkably candid story of one man’s unorthodox life before politics, from Labour minister and Sunday Times-bestselling author Chris Bryant

‘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’ REVEREND RICHARD COLES

Before he was a politician, Chris Bryant was an Anglican priest, baptising babies and holding the hands of the dying. Before that, he manned the barricades in Latin America, and before that, he was the scared son of an alcoholic mother and an estranged father.

This is a no-holds-barred account of a minister’s truly unconventional life before politics – one that has left Bryant equally at home behind the altar, in sweaty gay clubs, on the hustings or the stage. With characteristic frankness, he recounts growing up in General Franco’s Spain, acting alongside some of the most talented names of the day as a teenager, and caring for his brother and mother as she descended into addiction. He ran the family home from sixteen, became ordained at twenty-four and came out as gay shortly after. And that’s just the early years.

A Life and a Half tells a gripping story of bishops and actors, drag queens and pushy candidates, stuffed with moments of joy and hilarity and sorrow and abuse. All while tracking the landscape of late-twentieth-century British politics, from Thatcher to the birth of New Labour. It is a memoir like no other.

Newgate Prison, 1835. James Pratt and John Smith. Both were convicted of homosexuality – ‘an unnatural offence’. Both would be hanged at the gallows. And yet the 1830s was a time of great reform, when capital punishment was in decline. Of the jailed men alongside them, why were James and John alone not spared?

Labour MP and bestselling author Chris Bryant delves deep into the public archives, scouring poor law records, workhouse registers, prisoner calendars and private correspondence to recreate the lives of two men whose names are known to history – but whose story has been lost, until now.

‘An eye-opening portrait of Victorian injustice and hypocrisy’ The Times
‘With its courtroom denouement and Dickensian setting, TV commissioners should take note’ New Statesman
‘Carefully observed, rich in detail, imaginative, compassionate and angry’ Rory Stewart
‘An intricately detailed portrait of Regency England, roving from Newgate and the Old Bailey to servants’ quarters’ Financial Times

Longstanding Labour MP Chris Bryant tells the inside story of what went so wrong with Westminster – and how we might solve it.

The extraordinary turmoil we have seen in British politics in the last few years has set records. With the last government, we had the fastest turnover of ministers in our history and more MPs suspended from the House than ever. Rules were flouted repeatedly, sometimes in plain sight. The government seemed unable to escape the brush of sleaze. And just when we thought it was all going to calm down a bit, another scandal would break.

Having spent years as Chair of the Committees on Standards and Privileges, Chris Bryant had a front-row seat for the battle over standards in our politics. Taking us inside the Pugin-carpeted corridors of Westminster, from the prime minister’s office to the Strangers’ Bar, he examines how parliament got into this mess and suggests how it might – at last – get its house in order.

‘Takes a bulldozer to the crumbling edifice of parliamentary standards’ JAMES O’BRIEN * ‘Absolutely riveting’ REVEREND RICHARD COLES * ‘Lively, forensic, engrossing’ OBSERVER * ‘Vital’ ALASTAIR CAMPBELL * ‘Blisteringly topical’ TELEGRAPH * ‘Rollicking’ i-PAPER * ‘Unputdownable’ CAROL VORDERMAN