Paul Luckraft reviews ‘Guardian Angel’ by Melanie Phillips (Bombardier Books, 2018).

This is an intriguing look at the life and career of one of Britain’s most forthright and controversial journalists who regularly champions our national identity and Judeo-Christian heritage. Here we discover what shaped her early life and the key factors and influences that precipitated, in the words of the subtitle, her “journey from leftism to sanity”.

The book is perhaps better seen as a memoir than an autobiography but it does nevertheless take us chronologically from Phillips’ childhood in London through her career path to where she is now.

Poignant, Personal, Illuminating

The opening chapter is by far the longest as Phillips describes the angst and anxieties she experienced as a child. Clearly her family home was not a happy one, although it provided the moral foundation she would need in later life.

It is interesting that after describing her (Jewish) parents and upbringing in some detail there is little about her own family. We learn how she met her husband and that she has two children, but almost nothing about them. Later family relationships are also noticeably absent. It seems Phillips wants her personal story to be understood more in terms of the social and political changes that have happened in Britain during her professional lifetime (though intuitive readers will undoubtedly feel keenly the ways these have intersected with her family life). 

This is an intriguing look at the life and career of one of Britain’s most forthright and controversial journalists.

In the second chapter Phillips describes how she learnt her trade as a reporter and eventually joined the staff of The Guardian as a promising writer, by all accounts. Later chapters recount her ups and downs (mainly downs) at that publication in a way that is eye-opening and often entertaining (at least for those of us simply reading about them). We are led through the inner and outer turmoil she experienced as she gradually became aware of and came to terms with the vast ideological differences between herself and her co-workers.

Her account is deeply personal and yet illuminating for anyone learning their way around the problems with the ideological left-wing (cf. classic liberalism, Phillips’ background) and desiring to work through them intelligently and face the consequences bravely.

Overall, the account of her career path away from The Guardian is a poignant one - a move as traumatic and bewildering as any she could have imagined, but which was necessary if she was to remain true to her principle of “following the evidence where it led, and only then reaching a conclusion” (p119).

When towards the end of the book she states that “I believe what has happened to me illustrates what has happened to British society and western culture during the past three decades” (p172), we can readily agree. This is not over-inflated egotism but a logical conclusion that clearly follows from what she has recorded of her experiences.

Alfred and Mabel’s Daughter

Anyone familiar with Melanie Phillips’ writing will find this informative and for those who are not regular readers of her articles or blog, this is an excellent introduction to a social commentator who is both prescient and provocative.

An excellent introduction to a social commentator who is both prescient and provocative.

In some ways the book comes across as a sort of self-explanation, an attempt to understand what actually happened to her, personally and professionally. Certainly the book helps us understand her better and appreciate her even more.

When summing up who she is, Phillips concludes that she is neither on the left nor the right: “I am simply Alfred and Mabel’s daughter, a Jew who believes in helping make the world a better place and a journalist who believes in speaking truth to power” (p175).

'Guardian Angel' (175pp) is available on Amazon for £12.50 (paperback) or £5.91 (Kindle). Melanie Phillips writes regularly for The Times, the Jewish News Syndicate, the Jerusalem Post and for her own blog, at www.melaniephillips.com.