It’s always pleasant to be spending a care-free Saturday morning in your girlfriend’s kitchen with coffee and sugary porridge. It’s even better when you remember that on the next page of the newspaper you are casually flicking through is the first part of the serialisation of Anthony Seldon and Guy Lodge’s new book about Gordon Brown’s turbulent time at Number 10 Downing Street.
Due for publication this Thursday, Brown At 10 tells the compelling story of Brown’s three years in power, recounting the tumultuous times and ending with the demise of the New Labour project. Featuring fascinating and previously unpublished material, Seldon and Lodge’s book is the definitive chronicle of a remarkable era of troubled politics.
“‘A real weakness of Gordon’s was that he took advice from a ring of advisers which often cut across what we were doing in No 10 and created confusion,’ says a senior aide. ‘It was a total nightmare, as no one ever knew what was going on.’”
The serialisation of Brown At 10 continues today in the Daily Mail with a section about Brown’s temperament and, through the unique accounts from many of those in the centre of government at the time, how this manifested itself in various moments throughout his premiership, including one striking moment at the G20 summit.
“To the surprise of Obama and his entourage, the British premier was doing a passable impression of an erupting volcano... It was hardly the behaviour anyone would expect of a G20 summit host, and the American President watched with growing disbelief. As Brown’s aides drew near, he told one of them tersely: ‘Tell your guy to cool it.’”
Order your copy of Brown at 10 here for £20.