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Guardian Angel – My journey From Leftism to Sanity by Melanie Phillips (Post Hill Press 2018)
The author is a leading British journalist, broadcaster, and public commentator. In Guardian Angel, Phillips writes a short autobiographical memoir. A reader will get through the paperback quickly but may need to check out the meaning of the occasional word.
Melanie Phillips, the well-known UK literary giant makes sure each chapter cries out; so keep reading and, more importantly, take notice. Her uncompromising style reveals bravery in the face of strong opposition. Phillips gives bald facts and likes “to follow where the evidence leads” in her observations in an extraordinary and personal way. The readers will be engaged by compelling stories told in a forthright manner.
This book begins by describing her working-class Jewish parents, Alfred, and Mabel, who emigrated to Britain from Poland and Russia. Phillips was a solitary, serious young girl and when she first saw children playing, she was amazed. She was overshadowed by her mother, she had a disappointing father and a dominating grandmother.
The title of the book depicts the time she was The Guardian’s angel and award-winning darling of the Left, and then the readers are taken through her various careers at other newspapers. As an experienced and fearless journalist, she writes her story with powerful and articulate chapters. The level of aggression caused by the liberal Left did not force her into obscurity but rather put “iron into her soul” as she maintained her integrity. She finishes her 16-year career at The Guardian Newspaper, then describes the journey away from the political persuasion of the left.
It is a relief to read a book by a current journalist who is prepared to boldly put her head above the parapet in the restrictive PC world of the UK. Phillips writes on issues such as UK immigration, Islamisation, family (and marriage) breakdown, abandonment of structured education, anti-Semitism, and the poor.
Left-leaning readers were furious as they perceived Phillips destroying their socialist agenda. Hostility to her articles came as a complete shock to Phillips. She tells her readers that she was vilified when she thought she was doing her journalistic job by reporting the truth. A somewhat bewildered Phillips saw her writing as a moral responsibility.
The Guardian, her employer, a liberal progressive left-wing newspaper, did not like her challenging articles. She engendered rage and opposition from the Left. She says there is not much more that she can be called, after enduring insults like reactionary, right-wing, far-right, extreme-right, ultra-right, fascist, racist, Nazi, Holocaust-shroud-waver, warmonger, insane racist and the like.
In chapter 12, The Battle for Britain’s Soul, Phillips explains the reasons for her indignation. However, she believes that ” a culture can pull back from collapse […] but It requires moral, political, and religious leadership of the highest order, not to mention buckets of courage.
Like her or loathe her, Guardian Angel is not only a personal story, but gives an explanation as to why Western countries have such divergent political views and are where they are on so many issues.
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