First, few leaders write well, though there are exceptions, like Nehru, Churchill, and de Gaulle. No wonder that most of them employ a “ghost,” like the one in Robert Harris’s excellent thriller of the same name, which is really a devastating critique of Britain’s former premier, Tony Blair.
政治领袖的自传算不上是一种严肃的文学形式。首先，虽然也有像尼赫鲁、丘吉尔和戴高乐这样的例外情况，但是没有几位领导人擅长写作。怪不得多数领导人雇佣“枪手”代笔，这让人联想起罗伯特·哈里斯精彩的同名惊险小说中塑造的角色，这的确是对英国前首相托尼·布莱尔的致命的批评。