I Never Promised You A Rose Garden: A Memoir
By Jonny Oates
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
“The best book I have read all year. Simply brilliant.” – Iain Dale
“Oates takes you on an extraordinary journey … His is a life lesson that serendipity and courage can change things for good.” – Laura Kuenssberg, former BBC political editor
“Few in political life are as candid about the underpinning of what drives them. A gripping tale of escape and rescue, this is the story of the making of a liberal soul.” – Gary Gibbon, political editor, Channel 4 News
***
Aged fifteen, armed with a credit card stolen from his father, Jonny Oates ran away from home and boarded a plane to Addis Ababa. His plan? To save the Ethiopian people from the devastating 1985 famine. Discovering that demand for the assistance of unskilled fifteen-year-old English boys was limited, he swiftly learned that you can’t change the world by pure force of will – a lesson that would prove invaluable in politics.
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden charts Oates’s journey from his darkest moments alone in Ethiopia, struggling with his sexuality and mental health, to the heart of Westminster, where, as Nick Clegg’s chief of staff, he grapples with the compromises and concessions of coalition.
Shot through with a captivating warmth and humour, this heart-stoppingly candid memoir reflects on the challenges of balancing idealism and pragmatism, illustrating how lasting change comes from working together rather than standing alone.
Jonny Oates
Jonny Oates is a former deputy director of communications in 10 Downing Street and was chief of staff to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg during the coalition government. Inspired by Band Aid and Live Aid, he ran away from home to Ethiopia in 1985 hoping to help victims of the Ethiopian famine. He subsequently worked as a teacher in Zimbabwe and as a political adviser in South Africa’s first post-apartheid parliament. Jonny has twenty-five years’ experience in senior communications and advisory roles in the private and public sector both at home and abroad. He is currently a Member of the House of Lords and continues to advise individuals, companies and charities on communications. He lives in south-west London.
Related to I Never Promised You A Rose Garden
Related ebooks
I Never Promised You A Rose Garden: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStill None the Wiser: A Mid-Century Passage, 1952-1967 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChildren of the Market Place Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThat Quiet Earth: A First World War Tale Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Scent of Eucalyptus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClear Is the Water: My Grandfather Was Born in Dublin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTales You Never Suspected Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWylder's Hand Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAintree Days Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReflections on Our Independence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGlimpses of an Uncharted Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEven The Dead Are Coming: A Memoir of Sudan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCyprus Portraits Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFalling From The Sky Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShadows of Flight Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFishing in the Sky: The Education of Namory Keita Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHitchhiking to Serendip: In Which a British Serviceman Ignores All Advice and Hitchhikes Across 1950s Pre-Revolutionary Africa Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings''Hello Brother'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTo Timbuktu for a Haircut: A Journey through West Africa Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Gondar Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeer and Bagels for Breakfast Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Ordinary Man's Travels in an Extraordinary World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStories from Amman Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Soul Forsaken Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTravellers in the Sand: Desert lands of the Near East, a journal of true adventure Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Third of a Life: A Family's 25 Years in Foreign Service Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVoyages to Serendip: My Search for a Better Place Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Meaning of Fyfe: An India Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTales of the Heart Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Political Biographies For You
Fear: Trump in the White House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Enough Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beautiful Things: A Memoir Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Profiles in Courage: Deluxe Modern Classic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Story of My Experiments With Truth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mein Kampf Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Watergate: A New History Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Community: Seven Principles for Belonging Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life (Revised Edition) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nelson Mandela Biography: The Long Walk to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Washington: The Indispensable Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward's Twenty Interviews with President Donald Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5General's Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Five Days in November Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for I Never Promised You A Rose Garden
0 ratings0 reviews