Showing results by author "Francis Beckett" in All Categories

Since he left office in 2007, the empire of Tony Blair has grown exponentially. As a businessman he has been unprecedentedly successful for a former public servant, with a large property portfolio and an estimated GBP80 million of earnings accrued in just a few short years. But how has he managed to achieve this? Being an ex-prime minister comes with certain advantages, and besides his excellent state pension and twenty-four-hour security team, Blair enjoys the best contacts that money can buy.

Francis Beckett, an author, journalist, and playwright, edits Third Age Matters, the UK national magazine published by the University of the Third Age. His latest book is What Did the Baby Boomers Ever Do For Us ("Grey-haired hippies will read this book and shudder; the rest of us, though, will read it for the splendid stories and shafts of insight" - Dominic Sandbrook, BBC History) and his latest play is The London Spring ("The virtue of Beckett's nightmare vision lies in its Orwellian detail" - Michael Billington, The Guardian).