May at 10

Updated with significant new material, the paperback edition of the 2019 political bestseller.

Theresa May presided over the most dramatic and historic peacetime premiership for a century. May at 10 tells the compelling inside story of the most turbulent period in modern British politics for 100 years.

Written by one of Britain's leading political and social commentators, May at 10 describes how Theresa May arrived in 10 Downing Street in 2016 with the clearest, yet toughest, agenda of any Prime Minister since the Second World War: delivering Brexit. What follows defies belief or historical precedent. This story has never been told.

Including a comprehensive series of interviews with May's closest aides and allies, and with unparalleled access to the advisors who shaped her premiership, Downing Street's official historian Anthony Seldon decodes the enigma of the Prime Minister's tenure. Drawing on all his authorial experience, he unpacks what is the most intriguing government and Prime Minister of the modern era.

Sir Anthony Seldon is a leading authority on contemporary British history and education and is vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham. He was formerly master of Wellington College, one of the world's most famous independent schools. He is author or editor of over forty books on contemporary history, politics and education and is the lead author on, and honorary historical advisor to, Downing Street. His books include Number 10: The Illustrated History; Blair; Blair Unbound; Trust: How We Lost it and How to Get it Back; Brown at 10 (with Guy Lodge); Cameron at 10 (with Peter Snowdon); and The Cabinet Office, 1916–2016: The Birth of Modern Government.

'If you want to know who did what, when, and why, this book will tell you.' — Andrew Rawnsley, The Observer

'The great value of his book… is that it provides the layman and the historian with a treasure trove of interviews, and of insights from the heart of government.'— The Times

'Seldon has done the nation and historians a service by digging deep into what went wrong inside May's No. 10.' — Julian Glover, EveningStandard

'Extraordinarily detailed.' —Sunday Times

'Casts disturbing light on a prime minister who too often preferred to rule in the comfort of darkness.' — New Statesman

'Extraordinary … This book reminds you of a time when Downing Street was paralysed by self-doubt. You feel almost dirty reading of such failure.' — Quentin Letts, The Times

'A remarkable distillation of a very complex story.' — Tim Shipman