This is a personal diary in which Mo describes her time as Minister for Northern Ireland in Tony Blair's government, during the period of the peace talks at Stormont and the Good Friday Agreement.

But this is not just a dry politicial sermon. Mo tells us about her personal life. She writes about getting used to life in a royal palace for a down-to-earth Watford girl. There were weekend house parties where they sat on the Queen's bed and played croquet on the lawns. She tells us about how she and her team coped with her cancer treatment at the same time as travelling around Europe as a senior member of the UK Government.

This is not a great work of literature but it is a heartwarming and honest pesonal account by an intelligent and sincere woman who started out trying to make a difference to the lives of ordinary people in her Redcar constituency and ended up at the centre of world-changing political events. ( )