Unmasking Our Leaders

Our political leaders spend their careers spinning their images and polishing their achievements; Michael Cockerell has spent his professional life stripping off the gloss. Over fifty years, he has gained unrivalled access to the secret chambers of Westminster and Whitehall. Here, he reveals in illuminating and often hilarious stories what our top politicians are really like behind the mask.

Drawing on his unique experience of having filmed all the past ten Prime Ministers, Cockerell tells how he manages to lull some of the most wary people in the land into candour, and shows how questions of sex are never far from the surface in Westminster.

Revealing how our politicians have reacted during some of the most pivotal events in our recent history, Unmasking Our Leaders provides a compelling insight into a career working in political television and foreign reporting, where tensions, rivalries and life-threatening danger are all part of the package.

'As enthralling a history of modern British politics as you will find anywhere…it is richly stuffed with anecdotes and gags and as compelling as a Jack Reacher thriller, though with fewer dead bodies.' — Roger Alton, Daily Mail

'The most delightful, absorbing and thoroughly entertaining book about politics you will ever read. A triumph.' — Alan Johnson

'Stuffed with intimate anecdotes and scattered with decades of his own scoops, Michael Cockerell reminds us why he is the master.' — Laura Kuenssberg

'Hugely entertaining and revealing — my political book of the year.' — Iain Dale

'Michael Cockerell is the David Attenborough of the political animal kingdom — endlessly fascinated and fascinating.' — Rory Bremner

'The master chronicler of our political age tells the story behind the stories of those who’ve held power in Britain.' — Nick Robinson