There is a lot to unpack from Clinton’s latest book, one of the most personal she has written, and something of a polemic.

It is no coincidence that it was published just before the November 2024 presidential election in the US, as she writes strongly and passionately about the risks to the US, and democracy, if Donald Trump is elected.

They are old adversaries as she stood against him in the 2016 election and, while still angry, she is glad that Trump’s crimes have been exposed, and her main feeling is dread.

But her book is not just about Trump. Even people who do not share her political views will find something of interest in her life, which she declares has been of ‘public service.’

Fittingly, her introduction riffs on the Joni Mitchell song, Both Sides Now, sung by that great artist at the 2024 Grammys, but it was also the song of Clinton’s 1960s youth. Now 77, a mother, grandmother, and wife of 50 years, she used some of that song’s words for her book title, looking back on a long, eventful life.

There are fleeting allusions to past heartbreak about her marriage for which readers will know the context, but Clinton is now serene, ageing gracefully, while full of purpose to somehow better the lives of women and children around the world. Friendship is important to her, ranging from her childhood pals still kept close, to the band of mostly women who have worked with her as First Lady, senator, Secretary of State and presidential candidate.

She reveals her operation to bring hundreds of threatened Afghan women to safety after the US left their country; and her deep Methodist faith, always striving to follow John Wesley’s credo: ‘Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.’

She has gone back to teaching as a college professor, has links with inspiring women around the world, and weighs in on the toxic effect of technology on children.

Clinton has travelled the world in her varied roles, and has seen firsthand the challenges of climate change, particularly to women in developing countries. During her presidential run she was horrified at the smear campaign, later found to be baseless, that targeted her husband’s humanitarian charity, the Clinton Foundation, temporarily affecting its programs for needy and vulnerable people around the world.

She sees it as a case of the political becoming personal, but she is still working to build a world future she will never see.

Reviewed by Jennifer Somerville