Entertaining read but just a pander piece for the audience to make Matt Hancock look good. Wouldn't bother.

For the audiobook version of this title.

Well narrated, and interestingly - by the author himself. A story we all know, but it was interesting to listen to this version of events. A good bit of history-to-be, and good to hear from the horses mouth. Just not sure how accurate they are given journalistic involvement post events, and the general lies and coverups we know of by the government in general. 3.5 overall rounded up.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance copy for my honest opinion.

This is a difficult book to review and having spent much of the pandemic on the front line myself, I tried to read it with an open mind and not take into account any preconceived ideas I might have about individuals in government during that time.

There are a few people that don't come out of this version of events too well and I include the author in that. Its his version of events and it stands to reason he wants to be portrayed in the best possible light so its understandable that he'd want to point the finger in other directions and whilst not totally believable I kind of saw that coming. What I didn't expect was the childish point-scoring and smugness that as the book progressed I found increasingly irritating.

I'm being harsh; nobody was prepared for Covid-19 and to be in his shoes, with his level of responsibility couldn't have been easy. He had daily challenges and did his best in an impossible situation, just like the rest of us.

What I did like about this book was the interesting insight it gave into what went on behind closed doors and the decision making process that brought our country to a standstill. Ego's played a big part in our pandemic and leaks, in-house bickering and upstaging are just a few of the things that to this day cast a shadow of doubt over those that were in positions of trust.

This country did some things well but we also got some things terribly wrong and suffered the consequences. We had heroes and villains; I don't cast Hancock in either role. He was a very small cog who like an excitable child wants to be seen and remembered in the best possible light. Sadly I'm not sure that will be the case.

My thanks to W. F. Howes Ltd and NetGalley for the audio version for review, I was under no obligation and all opinions expressed are my own.

Was keen to listen to this book and would say the first half didn’t disappoint. It was a scarily accurate account of a moment in history that affected the whole world. Mr Hancock put to bed some interesting points of view and again highlighted the challenges of the NHS and pharmaceuticals. He also shone a light on some of the work of many unsung heroes that we only got a glimpse of on the famous podium! The impact of the pandemic is still unknown but hats off to Matt this is a historical text more than we realise!

I am not sure how much you can say this was a diary when it wasn’t written at the time and also had the help of a journalist write the book with you.

It was an Interesting read in parts. As a diary it is a little one sided

Matt Hancock became a household name and face in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic. As Secretary of State for Health and Social Care he regularly featured in the daily televised press conferences provided by the government. Essentially, he was the man largely responsible for co-ordinating the country’s efforts to combat this plague. To me, he came across as energetic and largely on top of his brief… if a little smarmy. He was forced to resign in June 2021 after his affair with a colleague – and a photograph of the pair disobeying social distancing guidelines – was revealed by a national newspaper. Here he provides his own recollections of the period, from the outbreak of the pandemic through to his resignation.

Set out as a series of diary entries, there’s a good deal here about how key people worked together and sometimes feuded as information was gathered, actions debated and decisions made. The key medical people come out well but a number Hancock’s colleagues less so. Dominic Cummings (Chief Adviser to Boris Johnson) comes across as a real snake, in fact he is accused of doing pretty much everything he could to bring Matt down. He’s clearly a hated figure: again and again he crops up, but never in a good way. It seems that Cummings had been totally let off the leash by Johnson and was a bully who ruled simply by fear, seeking to grab control of pretty much everything. Others that attract the ire of the author include Kate Bingham (chair of the UK Vaccination Taskforce), former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham. Bingham for constantly trying to undermine efforts to maximise the purchase of vaccine doses and the other two for blatantly playing politics throughout the crisis.

It’s hard to judge how much of what’s here is simply Hancock telling the truth as he saw it or alternatively a tempered version painting him in a better light than he deserves. But he’s a politician and it’s his version of the truth, so there’s are undoubtedly elements here that are self-serving. Either way, I found it interesting to re-visit this grim and dramatic period of our collective history with a decent insight into what went on behind closed doors at the highest level.

As I listened to an audio version of this book, read by Hancock, I realised that I’ve become attuned to his voice, having heard it so often in the past couple of years. I think this added positively to the experience; he’s a persuasive speaker and listening to him walk me through his recollections of this troubled time reminded me just how dark a time this truly was.

I found this quite hard going and dull in the main. Probably a combination of the dry depressing subject and the format in writing about it as a diary which makes it seem to drag on forever. Maybe that was the intention to reflect feelings on the pandemic.

I was also a little sceptical just how accurate an account this was of what was happening in the life of Matt Hancock at the time and how much had been revised with the benefit of hindsight. He seemed to be focussing on the potential severity of the virus from New Year's Day 2020 which was several weeks before it came to the attention of most people. I remain unconvinced that he really was so concerned at this early point and think if these were his true diary entries the virus would be a very minor part of his entries in those early days.

He doesn't mince his words or feeling for some, especially Dominic Cummings, which does raise a smile at times, Mostly it was tedious listening though. Maybe not helped by my having an audio copy to review which makes speed reading more challenging.

With thanks to NetGalley and W F Howes for a free audio copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The desire to share a story of an event you've experienced will always be a meaningful reason to write a book. It's insightful to learn the details from someone first-hand, especially one who was a key decision-maker in said event. For that, this book is commendable. However, this whole book has the tone of someone wanting to get there first; that being the first to tell their narrative makes them look good. He says little about what he, personally, did wrong, instead offering comments on his frustration with the actions of others.

Now that Hancock's shared his version, any subsequent writings will always be compared to the first one.

The synopsis given hypes up that this is never before shared information, candidly presented by Hancock, which is an overstatement. There are particulars shared about the workings of government, but for the most part, this is all publicly-available knowledge, or so mundane that it isn't all that exposing. It feels too much like it played safe, the most damning comments being about individuals on a personal basis, rather than their actions. If this is a tell-all, maybe there just isn't enough to tell.

Hancock states from the off that this is not actually a diary. Nor is it a memoir. Instead, it is a mashed-together compilation of documents, communications and memories that can be cobbled together chronologically because there is a date on them.

Ultimately, it is difficult to assess this book. It will be useful to some, namely anyone who felt they didn't understand the political angle of the time but is lacking in further detail to anyone who followed this well.

The man may divide opinions, but this book undoubtedly gives a balanced and informative account of what happened in Government during the pandemic. I enjoyed listening to it and I learnt a lot about how Government works, good and bad. It was particularly striking to me to listen to how disjointed the approach was between No.10, the Treasury and the Health Department, all seeming to support different directions, so it can't have been easy getting policy through quickly. I was interested to hear how many 'cock-ups' rather than 'conspiracies' there were when lots of the media narrative makes me think it is more the latter. It's good to get a different perspective of the UK's response to the pandemic, and I think it's important future decision-makers listen to the epilogue in particular to learn some of the key lessons.

This is one of the most entertaining political accounts I’ve read, or listened to, but not for the right reasons. Matt Hancock was the Minister of Health when Covid arrived and this ‘diary’ is his almost blow by blow account.

To be clear; this is not a diary in the true sense. Right at the start Hancock tells us that he was far too busy to keep a diary. This account is co written with journalist Isabel Oakeshott, so it’s difficult to know who’s concocted what. It purports to be compiled from records kept at the time, although of greater interest are official records which haven’t been released into the public domain. Subsequent to publication of The Pandemic Diaries, Oakeshott has released a huge volume of WhatsApp and other exchanges which throw a rather different light on some of the events described here. Hancock is, supposedly, furious. I believe it’s up to individuals to decide where the truth lies and she did the right thing.

Hancock sets the scene very early on when he states ‘When I woke up today I was briefly unable to distinguish fiction from reality’. Certainly, in this account he takes on the role of some fictional caped crusader. There he is, ready to swing into action against the Covid enemy, blessed with a prescience unrecognised by his colleagues, PM and Cabinet members.

He supposedly spotted this lurking danger in January when he noted a short piece in the Sunday Times about a bug in China. Over the following months, this journal records on an almost daily basis how the threat was managed. It comes across almost immediately that the country was totally unprepared for any pandemic. Lines of accountability and responsibility were confused. Civil service, Government, private sector and medical experts were often working at cross purpose to protect their own interest or agenda. Huge questions should be raised as to why planning was so woefully inadequate. A pandemic of one type or another has been on the cards for years and yet there was clearly not even an outline plan.

This account is shaped by hindsight. It’s also coloured by an individual desperately keen to put himself in the centre of everything and take the credit for saving the nation. It’s very one sided and it’s from a man whose moral compass is questionable; in the prologue he thanks his wife and mistress. Bit weird. I felt throughout that he’s trying to justify what a wonderful human being he is. Clever, funny, likeable and most of all, anxious to do his best for the country. But I take much of the book with a pinch of salt. It’s clear from other papers, for example, that rather than place care homes and residents as high risk and vulnerable he was more inclined to throw them under the proverbial bus.

Interesting insights into the background to some decisions we will all remember well. I was fortunate to be offered this Audible version ( narrated, naturally by himself, reasonably well). I wouldn’t buy the book because my opinion of him is very low and this account reinforces that view. I’m pleased he’s left politics ( well, his constituents deselected him).

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.