24 May 2013
For a politician writing about himself, Jack Straw is likeable — sort of. He’s an expert at revealing the ordinary, decent side of himself. He grew up in a council house in Essex. His family was almost, but not quite, middle-class. His parents argued, and split when he was 10. He calls Epping Forest “my childhood playground”. He loved it, despite the presence of what he called “dirty old men”: “We’d tell them to push off, with fruity language if needs be.” He got a scholarship to the fee-paying Brentwood School. He ran away. His A-levels weren’t great. He explains why he supported the Iraq war. It takes some time.
