There is a good book to be written about the life and times of C.V. Jim Woolridge.

Unfortunately Jim's recently-published own effort 'The House that Jack Built' isn't it.

At only 183 pages in large type the book hardly represents good value for $40. Indeed there is so much padding that sofa companies could learn a trick or two.

The first 50 pages read more like a family album than a political autobiography with entire pages given over to big glossy pictures of Jim's relatives. Anecdotes are told and then repeated on the next page or so. Whole newspaper articles are reprinted including two about Bermuda's Miss World Gina Swainson which each have the briefest mention of Jim. The book follows a very loose chronological order further confused by a reluctance to give dates.

Even more annoyingly, interesting points are glossed over.

For example, on Page 32 Jim claims the Flatts community in which he grew up has also spawned many leading figures in the political, civil and economic life of Bermuda.

Certainly the list looks impressive. But that's all there is - a list. On the facing page Jim lists all the world figures he has met, including US Presidents Ford, Carter and Bush as well as boxer Muhammad Ali.

But again he doesn't enlighten us about what was said. Perhaps he is saving that for the sequel. This is frustrating because it could be argued that the story of Jim's life is the story of modern day Bermuda. His battle against blatant racism in his early years to eventually become Deputy Premier marks the changes on the Island over the last 30 years plus.

And Jim certainly was one of the most self-made of self-made men. In America he studied for his dental qualification from 7.30 in the morning until 1 p.m. and then worked at a factory from 3 p.m. until midnight. But he still had to think hard before splashing out on a five-cent pack of cookies.

He writes: "Many times I was obliged to fill up with water before going to bed hungry."

But his dreams of working in dentistry in Bermuda were dashed by established practitioners who, he says, didn't want to employ a black man.

He then worked 13 hours a day, seven days a week in a variety of jobs to fund the building of his house.

His selection for Smith's South, which he would represent for more than 30 years, is glossed over and gives little indication of how politics worked at the time. The independence debate which tore the United Bermuda Party apart and paved the way for its eventual loss of power, according to Jim, merits two page of memories and then a reprinting of an entire speech he made on the subject to Hamilton Rotarians in July 1995.

Students of Bermudian politics keen to find out the history of their country will find slim pickings here. If he knew who the identity of the Judas in the UBP black caucus who fed information back to the then Premier Jack Sharpe Jim certainly isn't telling.

Certainly we are left in no doubt about his view of Sir John Swan who he accuses of mounting a campaign to undermine him in his post of Tourism Minister.

The issues of race and his relationship with others in the United Bermuda Party provide the most fascinating juxtapositions in the book.

He enthuses about being related to white Woolridge's in Alabama, yet he is not beyond throwing out the odd racial putdown when the pressure's on. Quizzed about the resignation of two members of the tourist board when he was the minister, he tells a Royal Gazette reporter: "You little white boys don't mind a black man being in charge, as long as you can tell him what to do."

When he refuses to withdraw the remark and one of the resigned members, Roger Davidson, wrote saying he would take Jim to the Human Rights Commission he hires top lawyer and Progressive Labour Party Supporter Julian Hall to handle the case. This sparks a crisis meeting of the UBP.

Jim writes: "I looked around the room and identified several lawyers whom I considered to be my friends but none of them was prepared to take my case because they feared economic and political reprisals. I told the gathering how I had received letters from Mr. Ottiwell Simmons, Mr. Freddie Wade and others in the community, but I had not had one phone call from my so-called friends and colleagues present. I told my black friends in the room that today it was me _ tomorrow it would be one of them."

Equally tellingly he writes later, after claiming former Royal Gazette editor David White had admitted to helping to scupper Jim's ascent up the greasy pole of politics: "No young, intelligent, electable black will join the United Bermuda Party in the future, after learning how other black Bermudians and I have been treated."

Again this is left hanging - half explained. Clearly Jim is a bitter man but one not given to a great deal of self insight. Perhaps this is too much to ask of a political memoir which tends to be an exercise in self justification.

With a much firmer hand from the book's editor Roger Boulton perhaps we would have been a bit wiser about what made Jim and Bermuda tick in those crucial years after the 1968 settlement.

MATTHEWTAYLOR