One Boy, Two Bills and a Fry Up: A Memoir of Growing Up and Getting On

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A] compelling story of overcoming adversity… Unexpectedly fascinating… amazingly inspiriting…’— The Observer This honest, uplifting, affectionate memoir is a tribute to the love and support which set him on his way out of poverty, and informs everything about Wes Streeting’s mission now in politics. He will be in conversation with Professor Pam Cox. Lakeside Theatre, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ

Wes Streeting knows it was the help and inspiration he received from the great characters that surrounded him, especially his paternal grandfather (also called Bill), that ultimately set him on the way to Cambridge and then Parliament. He knew he could draw on the strengths in childhood to eventually come out, and to go on and face his now successful struggle with kidney cancer. This honest, uplifting, affectionate memoir is a tribute to the love and support which set him on his way out of poverty, and informs everything about Wes Streeting’s mission now in politics.

Almost two-thirds of this book is committed to Streeting’s early years in a loving if chaotic family. By comparing the titular Bills, not pieces of legislation but Wes’s two grandfathers – one a law-abiding Conservative voter, and one a jailbird – we’re given a window into two approaches often found in working-class families in the 1980s. Perhaps some of Streeting’s contemporary Labour centrism comes from this tension: being constantly pulled between the half of the family who wanted to escape to suburban home ownership, and the other half of his Stepney roots who were dedicated to maintaining a community in the inner city. A moving and inspiring hymn to the ups and downs of life - to love, to adversity and above all courage.' - Michael Cashman 'Compulsive reading: Wes's story is inspiring, surprising and full of compassion'. - Jess PhillipsWes Streeting might have ended up in prison rather than in parliament. His maternal grandfather Bill, an unsuccessful armed robber, spent time behind bars, as did his grandmother, who was also a political campaigner. Wes Streeting joined The Graham Norton Radio Show with Waitrose to talk about the importance of state education and his new book. An evening with Labour MP and the Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting. Brought up on a Stepney council estate, the young Streeting saw his teenage parents struggle to provide for him. In One Boy, Two Bills and A Fry Up he vividly portrays the power of family and education to help him transform his life.

the vitality of the book lies in its directness and conversational candour... An engaging memoir' --- The Sunday Times For a politician to have such an extraordinary story to tell is rare. For that politician to be able to tell it with such eloquence and benevolence is rarer still. This book is a triumph.' --- Alan Johnson An inspiring, witty East End growing up memoir by leading Labour MP Wes Streeting, vividly portraying the power of family and education to help him escape poverty and transform his life. Plan which pride events to attend thuis year. It's the UK"s most up to date list with over 180 prides taking place in 2023. And we're updating this list every week. ROYAL MAIL STRIKES DURING NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2022 WILL DELAY DELIVERIES. THE LATEST UPDATE ON THE STRIKE DATES CAN BE VIEWED HERE .the vitality of the book lies in its directness and conversational candour… An engaging memoir’— The Sunday Times This riveting tale of social aspiration leads us from the East End to Westminster in detailed honesty.'

He has a lot on his plate. But he’s stubborn – or at any rate, not easily led. He doesn’t mind standing out from the crowd. Though he wears his Arsenal shirt to school on non-uniform days in the hope of warding off bullies, he also brandishes a copy of Tony Blair’s New Britain: My Vision of a Young Country on the coach to games lessons. Helped by wonderful teachers, and the Sutton Trust, which sends him on a summer school to Cambridge, he applies to the university, and wins a place there, at which point, life changes. He may, unlike many of his fellow students, have to work at Comet in the holidays, but he’s on his way (at Cambridge, he’s also able to come out). A career in student politics leads to a job at Stonewall, and thence to his election, first as a Labour councillor and finally as an MP. Will Streeting one day lead the party, perhaps even be prime minister? I don’t know. But I can’t see this book, and especially the way he has written it, as anything other than a statement of intent. Although he's no longer with us and didn't live to see me elected to Parliament, I can almost hear him in my head saying, 'Yeah, but you work with more crooks than I did in Parliament',” he joked.This honest, uplifting, affectionate memoir is a tribute to the love and support which set him on his way out of poverty, and informs everything about Wes Streeting's mission now in politics.me and notoriety as relevant now as they were almost a century ago" A] compelling story of overcoming adversity... Unexpectedly fascinating... amazingly inspiriting...' --- The Observer'Extraordinary' --- Evening Standard 'Funny, honest and at times heart-breaking - a terrific read.' --- Lorraine Kelly'For a politician to have such an extraordinary story to tell is rare.

Wes Streeting knows it was the help and inspiration he received from the great characters that surrounded him, especially his paternal grandfather (also called Bill), that ultimately set him on the way to Cambridge and then Parliament. He knew he could draw on the strengths in childhood to eventually come out, and to go on and face his now successful struggle with kidney cancer.

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And yet, there’s something missing here, which is where the fascination comes in. How did he make it, you wonder, absorbing the more chaotic details. What calmness and determination he had; what self-containment and aspiration. But if the reader cannot quite account for these things – where did they come from? – nor does Streeting, who writes as if he’s a stranger to himself. Either the inward is simply not available to him – some people, a touch robotic, are like this – or (more likely) there are feelings he still finds so painful, he can only push them away. The third possibility – that he’s some kind of saint – seems unlikely given his attraction to the knot of vipers that is party politics. At Cambridge, unlike many of his fellow students, he has to work at Comet in the holidays Politicos sells political ephemera, gifts, memorabilia and books. It is operated and curated by LBC radio presenter and political commentator Iain Dale.