I suspect that Campbell has had to have a tough word with himself from time to time, has learned lessons from the success of others as means of personal survival, and that 'Winners' is in fact the fruit of that very extended, hard-won and probably rather painful harvest. As befits an extremely successful journalist, speech-writer and spin doctor, Campbell writes clearly and forcefully. His examples and case-studies, gathered from sport, politics and personal experience, are well-chosen, memorable and sometimes surprising, e.g. a life-long republican's encomium to HM the Queen. If some of his basic points are rather simple, isn't this generally true of helpful advice?

Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial? Not a fan of New Labour, competitive sport, self-help books or indeed people who describe themselves as 'winners'? It really doesn't matter. Alastair Campbell was born in Keighley, Yorkshire in 1957, the son of a vet. Having graduated from Cambridge University in modern languages, he went into journalism, principally with the Mirror Group. When Tony Blair became leader of the Labour Party, Campbell worked for him first as press secretary, then as official spokesman and director of communications and strategy from 1994 to 2003. He continued to act as an advisor to Mr Blair and the Labour Party, including during subsequent election campaigns. He now splits his time between writing, speaking, politics in Britain and overseas, consultancy and charity, as chairman of fundraising for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, and a leading ambassador for the mental health campaign Time to Change. The book is split into sections, with each section starting off discussing different parts of the skills Alastair sees as essential to any sort of success, which then proceeds into a case study of an individual who Campbell feels shows the perfect example of the winning trait in action. For example, the first section of the book focuses on the holy grail of “Objective, Strategy, Tactics”, followed by chapters on how effective leadership and teamship is essential to carrying out a winning OST blueprint. After this, characters from the world of business, sport, and politics are given as examples to study, from Ana Wintour of Vogue fame to Jose Mourinho, possibly the most infamous non-player figure in the world of professional football right now. Alastair Campbell knows all about winning. As Tony Blair’s chief spokesman and strategist he helped guide the Labour Party to victory in three successive general elections, and he’s fascinated by what it takes to win.This writing format is continued throughout the book, with the second section talking about a winning mind-set, using examples from the highly successful cycling team Team Sky and their marginal gains ideology, followed by another case study of THE most infamous figure in contemporary sport, Floyd Mayweather Jr. This format means the book and lessons being taught throughout are easy to understand and makes the book a highly structured, yet unique and enjoyable read, with Campbell constantly name dropping well known people he has met and what we can learn from them. If this reeks of Piers Morgan’s Mail on Sunday columns, then do not worry, unlike Mr Morgan, rather than simply saying something like “I met Maradona, he said hi Piers, you are so awesome”, Campbell instead tells us a tale of how Maradona uses crowd visualisation before any kind of footballing event and sees himself a few hours later scoring the winning goal, therefore making the task to be carried out much easier when the actual game is played as Maradona has visualised the moment that befalls him in the real world. Piers, he is not. Winners' reaches places perhaps unanticipated by its author. I turned to it, almost by accident, in the midst of minor personal crisis totally unrelated to football, cycling or geopolitics: my problem was a contentious local planning dispute. The whole thing was getting me down. I felt increasingly powerless, victimised by circumstances beyond my control and unable to see a positive way forward. Alastair Campbell knows all about winning. As Tony Blair's chief spokesman and strategist he helped guide the Labour Party to victory in three successive general elections, and he's fascinated by what it takes to win. If you do nothing, you will be auto-enrolled in our premium digital monthly subscription plan and retain complete access for 65 € per month. Alastair Campbell's foray into motivational writing is good enough to leave all such self-limiting prejudices floundering in its wake. This is an excellent book.

My mantra is Objective, Strategy, Tactics. OST. Far too many people fail to understand the difference between S and T. To find out how crucial this is, I communicated with Steve Jobs via a Ouija board. “What is the secret of your strategy?” I asked him. “Hi Al,” he replied. “It’s so great to be talking to a winner like you. My strategy was always just one word. Simplification.” “Genius, Steve,” I replied. “That’s just what I intend to do in this book with a reductive analysis of people who have succeeded at something.” Does 'Winners' give an insight, however indirectly, into what Tony Blair got from Alastair Campbell during those long-ago days of refulgent Labour success? Certainly, it feels that way. Reading 'Winners' is rather like having a trusted, plain-speaking, sometimes pretty merciless friend standing by my side, telling me to get myself together, think strategically and act purposefully. It's all good advice. It also works. For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial.You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. I was hungry to talk to some other great winners. In football, there are few managers whose team has so consistently underperformed in the Champions League than Arsène Wenger, so I was keen to get his views. “Er ... the referee missed some key decisions ... er ... we should definitely have been awarded a penalty ... we were definitely the better side,” he told me. “Now why don’t you ferk erff and talk to José Mourinho. “Tactics and strategy mean nothing,” José said. “All you need to win the Premier League is a Russian oligarch to bankroll the club and a manager of my brilliance.” Winning is about not being satisfied with anything less than winning. A winner is happy under pressure and doesn’t fall into a comfort zone. In any team, there can only be one leader. Tony Blair understood that perfectly which is why he appointed John Prescott, someone with no leadership qualities, to be his deputy. Winners also need to be resilient, have a good command of the facts and be good in a crisis. Who’d have thought it? I have been involved in a few political crises in my time and have always come out on top by bullying people, shouting a lot and being entirely economical with the truth. A winner always remembers that his own survival is more important than maintaining the integrity of the democratic process.

Even into the later chapters, the book still proves to be a consistently well written and occasionally very touching read. The discussion of the early life of Australian surfing champion Layne Beachley and how a challenging upbringing can develop characteristics essential to success certainly resonates with my personal challenging childhood, and yet when you see Beachley’s reaction when she finally reaches the top, you can’t help but feel a little underwhelmed at her reaction. But winners are never satisfied.Alastair Campbell is a man that divides opinion, in the political world and out of it. Seen as the man who brought “spin” in British politics to a new level, and with it helping Tony Blair win 3 successful elections for the Labour party, he is also painted as one of those involved heavily in the infamous and dreadful decision to send the British Army to Iraq. However, his views on this can be seen in this other book, while this latest release from the man strays very much away from British politics to observe various aspects and traits winning people have that make them so successful.