This is a story of life in the age of Mandelson: politician, aesthete, director of communication.

Is it possible to be happy in the age of Mandelson? Moderniser, trouble-shooter, king-maker, architect of New Labour, power-broker, agent, asset, confidant: Peter Mandelson is emblematically, and maybe literally, the major political figure of our age. But who's happy? Whatever happened, Mandelson! Mandelson! wants to know, to happiness as a political imperative? And whatever happened to the public good? Oh, and while we're at it, how come some people are more answerable than others? And anyway, who said work was more important than pleasure? And what should my end be? And what form should I take? And who's welcome? And who isn't? Mandelson! Mandelson! A Memoir wants answers to these questions and more: an account - why not? - of an unaccountable age.

Since David Herd began writing this book Peter Mandelson has twice had to resign from cabinet office, and has thrice come back, defying all political gravity. He is unique, amazing, charmed, doomed.

Mandelson! Mandelson! is formally a various book; this is very much part of its point. It incorporates, among other forms: the sonnet, the villanelle, a noh play, a prose poem, diagrams, pictures, poems in quatrains, lists, haiku-like observations, non-haiku-like observations, free verse, a photograph, a bank statement and a disclaimer.

Table of Contents

Disclaimer

About These Parts

My Young Youth

A Statement of Intent

In which the Poet, Trying to Come up with a Title for the Book he is Writing, becomes Anecdotal; and his Loyal Companion of Several Years' Standing Helps Out by Throwing a Log on the Fire

Notes Towards a New Method of Institutional Audit

Cherries

Modern Love

Mass Observation

On Once Seeing Gary Humes's 'Daffodils' in Hoxton (I Wanted to Whistle)

To E.P.

Almonds

Apples

March 9th, 2001

In which the Poet Speaks of Time Spent in America, while Noting, in Passing, an Alimentary Complaint

Exile's Letter

Mass Observation

Prudence

Peter's Poem

Peter! Peter!

How to Breathe

Tuesday

My Life

The Poet's Dream

In Which the Poet and his Wife Address the State of the Nation

Untitled

On First Listening to Mahler's Second Symphony, otherwise known as the 'Resurrection'

A Builder Sings

January 20th, 2003

In Person

Note to Self

Shops and Houses

A Poem by Walter de la Mare

Two Figures

To a Friend

A Note on the Title