Life in the Jungle: My Autobiography

2000. First edition. Hardbook. Very Good / Very Good. Hardback with wrapper first. Inscribed and signed by the author. Blue/gilt cloth hardback in illustrated DJ. 560pp. with many b/w illustrations. Autobiography of Conservative MP, Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. Retells vividly Heseltine's thrilling confrontations with Margaret Thatcher throughout the 1980s. "In this forthright autobiography he tells the story not just of his political life but of his business career as well - of his earliest commercial days running first a boarding-house and then a hotel in Bayswater; of how in 1962, as a property developer, he was almost forced into bankruptcy; of the way, after a disastrous start, he patiently built up his magazine empire to the point where it is today one of the largest private companies in the land. The book offers a number of personal glimpses.But above all, this is a tale of high drama and high politics - of the clash with Mrs. Thatcher over Westland in 1986 which led to his walk-out from her Cabinet, of the duel between the two of them that brought about her downfall in 1990 and of his own restoration to favour in the Conservative Party culminating in his becoming Deputy Prime Minister in 1995. If the top office at Westminster always eluded him, nothing much else did - as this vividly told story of a 'doer' rather than a 'blower' in politics amply demonstrates." Very Good Book and Very Good Plus Wrapper.

B1