About a decade ago, Seldon, who is a governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company, began an informal programme with David Cameron’s government that sought to provide for the present incumbents of the highest office some history of No 10 itself and their predecessors there. He staged a series of talks from prominent historians, as well as performances of Shakespeare in the rose garden, in the belief that politicians “might root themselves in the arts, in the benchmark of what is good and true”. He recalls a performance that the RSC gave for Cameron and guests just before the former resigned as prime minister: “It was quite a moving occasion in the garden. The killing of Caesar was one of the scenes and I remember watching Cameron with his daughter leaning on his shoulder and Samantha next to him.” When Johnson came to power Seldon hoped the programme might continue – Johnson did after all have a lucrative contract to write a book about Shakespeare. There was no interest whatsoever. “Covid made things difficult obviously,” he says, “but we did come in. Johnson never once showed up. As [his school reports showed] he had no deep interest in any classical history, language or literature or Shakespeare. His examples were always for show. At his heart, he is extraordinarily empty. He can’t keep faithful to any idea, any person, any wife.”

‘I am the führer. I’m the king’: new book lifts lid on life

Reading this is a sad experience. This is not to make a political point but to reflect how far Boris Johnson's tenure in 10 Downing Street fell short of the demands of office, which is why he fell so spectacularly from power after only three years. The chapter on Covid is particularly damning. An official observed that it was “astonishing how hard he found it to grasp the finer points of Covid policy… he couldn’t process the volume of information”. Another official noted that “in one day he would have three meetings in which he would say three completely different things depending on who was present, and then deny that he had changed his position”. When he insisted he hadn’t made a decision, officials had to show him printouts of what he had agreed earlier that day. Levelling Up was Johnson's great vision but fizzled out with no plan and Sunak denied it any money after the covid costs. Decisions were made in smaller meetings or Johnson bypassed department heads and spoke directly to their staff. Cabinet went almost 2 years without debating anything substantial, almost unbelievable.Politics Inside 24 hours of Westminster chaos as Boris Johnson tried to spin the Sue Gray report to MPs Read More Corvus Atlantic’s commercial fiction list which includes women’s, historical, romance, sci-fi, crime and thriller. No such problems here. The writing is taut and businesslike and there are almost no stylistic blemishes to make me wince. Cummings was one of the few participants in that Downing Street and Whitehall farce who did not speak to Seldon. The author does not feel that the omission is significant, since Cummings has written so very much about this period, “and his footprints are over everything anyway. People will make their own judgments,” he says of what he discovered, “but I don’t think that it’s remotely unfair to Cummings or for that matter to Johnson.”

Johnson at 10 by Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell review

Johnson was clearly a man unfit to govern. He was lazy; his attention was spasmodic; he chose to be surrounded by people who would not challenge him; he was unable to make decisions effectively; he was often torn between what Carrie, his wife, would say, what his advisers were advising and what he felt ought to be done; he did not cultivate his MPs; his inclinations were at odds with the influential (and obstinate) Conservative right-wingers; he was a liar, arrogantly self-confident, inconsistent to the exasperation of his aides and advisers, often unbriefable, utterly casual over detail… And so on and so forth. He was a vortex of chaos, and No 10 became one as well without the kind of clear and consistent leadership that makes for an effective administration. The heart of government was, in fact, under Johnson, dysfunctional. Of his time in the Foreign Office, the book says: “Johnson had forged some important personal relationships that were to bear fruit later, but had learned little of value as foreign secretary about leadership to take forward with him into Downing Street, least of all about the kind of people on whom he would have to rely, and about how to define strategy then to deliver it.” This, we are told, was a “squandered opportunity that was to cost him dear”. For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial. It was interesting to read such an immediate review of Johnson's time at No 10, the conclusion written just over a month ago. There was a lot here that was familiar and anticipated, but also a lot of fascinating detail that fleshes out the picture. Given this book was published in May 2023, I expected a hatchet job. It is anything but - rather it is a careful and even-handed account of Johnson's period as PM. The author's fifth such account, having done the same for Blair, Brown, Cameron and May. It is a mixture of journalism and history, with the emphasis (to its credit) on the second.

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This was an explosive book! The tell all details of Boris Johnson's short reign as Prime Minister of what was once a first world country but which is now rapidly becoming a third world country, and all deepened by the rule of a short term egotistical man. He lied to everyone around him: the authors point out it was more the Court of Henry VIII than a modern functioning government. An obvious lazy approach/clear avoidance of doing the tough boring work. Implementation, and strategy he avoided at all costs. Thoroughly researched and detailed, the authors make a comprehensive argument for Johnson’s shortcomings, of which there are many (no spoilers there!) and of which the authors are clear!

Johnson at 10 review – ducking and diving with the PM who

People we spoke to were afraid of Cummings, personal fear,” he says. “And to an extent of the whole Johnson court. In the seven books I’ve written, we saw some fear of some of the people around Gordon Brown, but this was off the scale. And that’s a deeply unhealthy facet of modern government that you let in people who are using fear as a method of control. Quite a lot of that was misogynistic in what we saw.” Anthony Seldon published his Cameron at 10 book when David Cameron was still in Number 10. It made for uncomfortable reading for the then prime minister, with its analysis of who the man in charge was and well-sourced revelations about how he made policy. To what extent, was Boris Johnson the ‘British Trump’ throughout his government and in his downfall? Why would a previously serving Foreign Secretary ask civil servants to write him a 3,000-word essay on what his foreign policy should be as PM, when he had previously served in the role under Theresa May?Throughout, the authors keep returning to the phrase: “In his beginning, was his end” which sums up Johnson’s premiership – he was brought down by sleaze and scandal after proving himself entirely incapable of the role of Prime Minister, something that should surprise nobody.

Johnson at 10 by Anthony Seldon, Raymond Newell - Waterstones Johnson at 10 by Anthony Seldon, Raymond Newell - Waterstones

He had no clue how to be an effective prime minister and no idea what he wanted to do with the role other than satisfy his lust for its status and perks. One of his cabinet ministers, who was also a friend, is quoted saying: “Boris absolutely loved being prime minister, its prestige and the trappings. He revelled in it… His philosophy on the way up had been to do, pledge, say anything to get over the line because I’m the best, I deserve it. Now I’m here in No 10 without any core beliefs, I can do and say whatever I need to remain here.” Johnson deliberately stuffed his cabinets with mediocrities who knew they were expected to be “nodding dogs” Anthony Seldon has written accounts of the time at 10 Downing Street of all UK Prime Ministers since John Major. The only other I read before this was May at 10, whose fascinating account of those woebegone 3 years was spoilt by poor writing and sloppy editing. Well,” he says, “this is the reason why for the moment Starmer is disappointing, because there is this enormous desire for renewal. But Starmer seems micro when he could be macro, cautious when he could be passionate, dull where he could be inspirational.” Grove Press An imprint of Grove Atlantic, an American independent publisher, who publish in the UK through Atlantic Books. Ultimately he lied to himself. He was a man who could not cope with more than 3 slides of information, which he invariably forgot. The King of the World ended up without a horse and stranded by history.This is not a book that I enjoyed, not a book to be enjoyed from the viewpoint of my politics certainly because of all of the depressing confirmation that it provided of the failings that Johnson brought into No.10 and the damage it did to our nation.