Didn't You Used to Be Chris Mullin
Further Diaries
The latest volume of diaries from the bestselling author of A View from the Foothills, A Walk-On Part and Decline and Fall.
When I retired from Parliament in April 2010, I ceased keeping a diary, on the assumption that life would no longer be of sufficient interest to justify doing so. It soon became apparent that I was wrong and so before long I resumed.
As readers of the previous volume may recall, my decision to retire was accompanied by a great deal of angst. I always knew there was a life outside politics, but I wasn’t confident that there would be any demand for my services. As I wrote at the time, leaving earlier than I need have done was either the best or the worst decision of my life. I wasn’t sure which. As it happens it has turned out well. This past decade has seen some of the best years of my life.
I am under no illusion, however. Despite the occasional moment in the sunshine, I have never been much more than a fleabite on the body politic. On a visit to Parliament a couple of years after retiring, I came across a former colleague. He peered at me over the top of his glasses and said, ‘Didn’t you use to be Chris Mullin?’
‘Thank you,’ I replied. ‘That will be the title of Volume 4.’
Chris Mullin was the Labour MP for Sunderland South from 1987 until he decided to stand down at the 2010 general election. He chaired the Home Affairs Select Committee and was a minister in three departments. He is the author of three widely acclaimed diaries: A View from the Foothills, Decline and Fall and A Walk-On Part, as well as the classic novel A Very British Coup.
