Speed reading

CHRIS NANCOLLAS on political lives

One Boy, Two Bills and a Fry-Up

(Hodder, £10.99; Tablet price £9.89) is the remarkable story of Health Secretary Wes Streeting. Brought up by his teenage mum on tough East End estates, he suffers poverty, bullying and homophobia. He escapes because he is intelligent and determined, and has a role model in his grandfather Bill, a marked contrast to his other grandfather (also Bill), a career criminal and wife-beater. His dedication leads him to Cambridge University, where his political career takes off, and where he finally acknowledges that he is gay. This is a heartwarming account of triumph against almost impossible odds.

Blue Ambition

(Biteback, £20; Tablet price £18) is Michael Ashcroft’s biography of Kemi Badenoch, charting her rise from Nigerian immigrant to Cabinet minister. She emerges as a strong, intelligent woman with a firm set of Thatcherite principles, who, like her heroine, is not afraid to speak her mind. Tellingly, Tory grandees who have seen her perform believe that she is the future. This is a well researched and readable account of someone who may just be our next prime minister.

Murder in the Gulag

(Headline, £20; Tablet price £18) is award-winning journalist John Sweeney’s profile of Alexei Navalny, the Russian politician murdered in prison by Putin’s thugs. Navalny was a complex man who, despite jail, an acid attack and poisoning, continued to attack Putin’s dictatorship in acts of almost suicidal courage. Sweeney paints a terrifying picture of modern Russia, a kleptocratic police state where Putin’s assassins deal with anyone who is a threat to the regime. A great piece of investigative journalism, and a fitting tribute to one of the bravest men on the planet.