Skimmed Obama’s new memoir for British references yesterday. There are some standout ones.

Says Cameron had “the easy confidence of someone who’d never been pressed too hard by life”. 1/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/11/17/barack-obama-dismisses-royal-protocol-row-michelle-touching/

Obama on Gordon Brown: He “lacked the sparkly political gifts of his predecessor” Tony Blair.

But also calls him “thoughtful” and “responsible”. 2/

Obama recounts the media reaction to Michelle touching the Queen’s shoulder during the 2009 G20 summit in Britain. Says the Queen “didn’t seem to mind”. 3/

Obama’s vignettes of world leaders are fascinating + can be pretty cutting.

On former French president Nicolas Sarkozy: “all emotional outbursts and over-blown rhetoric”; his “primary barely disguised interest” was to take the credit. 4/

Also this from the 2009 UK visit. Obama describes Michelle’s trip to a London girls school + cites an economist saying it was followed by a “notable spike” in test scores. 5/

A few more details in our piece here, inc Obama being left irritated with Cameron + Sarkozy re their “half-assed” plan for a no-fly zone over Libya to counter Gaddafi. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/11/17/barack-obama-dismisses-royal-protocol-row-michelle-touching/

(Obama memoir, at 776pgs, is just volume one. Goes up to Bin Laden raid in 2011, so no account of the frustration with Cameron over the Syrian air strikes Commons defeat.)

Obama’s description of Angela Merkel is interesting too.

All about the eyes, “big and bright blue”, “could be touched by turns with frustration, amusement, or hints of sorrow”. (This comes right before the Sarkozy passage).