When someone writes a review about political books - we like to think we're a shoo-in. That's what we publish, you see. When they write about political books and don't include us we feel dejected, like we haven't done our jobs properly.
But Peter Oborne has blown us away with his review, published today in the Daily Telegraph and entitled Political Books: review, Peter has taken the time to review three of our books: 22 Days in May, 5 Days to Power and Anthony Seldon and Guy Lodge's Brown at 10.
Of Rob Wilson's book 5 Days to Power, Oborne says:
"He gained access to most of the participants, including Cameron and Clegg (though not Brown). The result is a first-class piece of journalism, full of shrewd judgments and new information. Wilson’s version is fair and accurate."
Very kind of you to say so!
Of Seldon and Lodge's efforts, Oborne continues:
"...there was one loser from this arrangement – Brown. He became a prisoner in Downing Street, hanging on to the illusion of power while his rivals divided up the spoils of office.
Anthony Seldon and Guy Lodge show in their superbly well-informed biography Brown at 10 that this drove him crazy. The authors tell the astonishing story of how Buckingham Palace, observing the new O’Donnell convention, refused the prime minister’s desperate requests to resign."
There's lots of exellent commentary from Oborne on the revelations of our recent books about the formation of the coalition government and Gordon Brown's fraught tenure at Number 10.
Not least this little charm, which is a verbal cherry on top:
"Three of these books have been published by the new political imprint Biteback, which has come of age as one of Britain’s premier political publishers."
All of these titles are available from all good bookshops and as ebooks, priced £4.60 here.