| By Jon Surtees Billed as one of the biggest names speaking at this years Oxford Literary Festival, the expansive Sheldonian was almost completely sold out for this 'Audience With
' from Tony Blair's controversial former Director of Communications. Although the evening was billed as purely being with Alistair Campbell, he was joined on stage by former BBC and ITN Political Editor, John Sargent. Although occasionally amusing, Sargent seemed to frequently forget whos name was on the ticket and overstated his part quite considerably. Campbell on the other hand was excellent. He began the evening by giving a speech chartering his life and career from the first Burnley FC match he attended at the age of 4, through his time at Cambridge, his experiences on the Mirror training course and in a tabloid newsroom and finally about how he had a premonition on the day of John Smith's death that 'Tony' would become leader of the Labour Party and he would work for him. This was followed by a lively session of questions from the audience. The overriding topic was of course, 'spin' and a number of the questioners certainly sounded like they had a few years of bile to vent in a very short time. Campbell was however, polite to the end and answered all questions in a manner befitting someone so versed in the rituals of public life. He gave an excellent impression of himself throughout the night, telling some very funny stories, particularly one where John Prescott hit someone on the campaign trail in 2001. Now seemingly refocused on family life and the destruction of the Daily Mail, Alastair Campbell is clearly using his downtime to good effect as this evening amply demonstrated.
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