Brown at 10

by Anthony Seldon, Guy Lodge

Gordon Brown's three years in power were among the most turbulent in Downing Street's post-war history. Brown at 10 tells the compelling story of his hubris and downfall and, with it, the final demise of the New Labour project. Anthony Seldon is an authority on contemporary British history. Guy Lodge comments on British politics and public policy issues.

Genres: Politics, History, Nonfiction, British Literature, Biography

519 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2010

About the author

Sir Anthony Francis Seldon, FRSA, FRHistS, FKC, is a British educator and contemporary historian. He was the 13th Master (headmaster) of Wellington College, one of Britain's co-educational independent boarding schools. In 2009, he set up The Wellington Academy, the first state school to carry the name of its founding independent school. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham from 2015 to 2020. Seldon was knighted in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to education and modern political history.

Reviews

[David Cheshire · Rating 4 out of 5]

A remarkable portrait of Gordon Brown's premiership; not a happy tale. It is full of insights; this "flawed collossus" could not follow sensible work methods, motivate his team, plan a stategy let alone follow it, or prevent himself from sliding into morose depressions. His work methods are described as " chaotic". As chancellor the Treasury provided him with the protection of both a structure and an agenda. As premier, incapable of devising either for himself, he was disastrously exposed. His personal flaws, temper tantrums and humourlessness were magnified and were the despair of even his loyalists supporters. Someone said of Peel that his smile was like the silver plate on a coffin. Brown's was worse, often flashing on and off randomly and inappropriately when on camera. Read with Mandelson's memoirs this gives a rounded picture of the major political tragedy of recent politics: how a brilliant chancellor and a serious, dedicated and gifted man descended rapidly into a dark abyss of political failure.

[Barry McCulloch · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've read Seldon's account of the Blair years you will know exactly what to expect. Analytical, dense and as close to objectivity as you can get in contemporary political history.

Seldon and Guy Lodge are on form again for Brown at 10. Indeed, they almost do too good a job at immersing you into the dysfunctionality, backstabbing, plots and policy paralysis that was at the heart of Brown's Number 10. By the end of it, you're exhausted.

If you are after an easy read or a partisan evaluation of Brown this book is clearly not for you. Brown gets a fair hearing as they point out his strengths (global leadership on development and economics) and his weaknesses (severe character deficiencies and lack of a domestic policy platform).

I would highly recommend it those who are interested in the latter years of the New Labour project. It paints a complex picture of a man who fails to live up to his own expectations and escape his past

[Jeff Howells · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've got back into the politics groove recently, so following on from reading 'Cameron at 10' I've just finished off the equivalent account of Gordon Brown's Premiership (co-authored by Anthony Seldon who also had a hand in the Cameron book as well as penning several books about Blair & one on John Major).
I'm not going to lie, I never really liked Gordon Brown. I thought it distasteful that he manoeuvred for a job for so long that he was clearly incapable of doing. He bullied & he plotted yet played the victim when the boot was on the other foot. To be fair this book is relatively even handed but by the end of it, it hadn't convinced me to change my opinion of him one bit. Put simply Brown had used up all his ideas when he was Chancellor. He felt the need to distance himself from Blair but he had no coherent strategies or policies.
The person who comes out of this worst is Ed Balls. People might cut him a bit more slack since he went all Gangnam style on Strictly Come Dancing, but nothing can disguise the fact that he is an arrogant & rude bully with a grossly inflated opinion of his own intellectual capabilities.
The bottom line is that - aside from his leadership during the Global Economic Crisis, Gordon Brown was easily the worst Prime Minister of modern times...only Eden comes close (another politician who waited so long to succeed to the top job). Although compared to Theresa May he's practically William Gladstone.

[Tom J · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolutely fantastic. the personalities here and the stakes take this to a shakespearean level, with the central theme being that the worst thing you can have in the world is the thing you want the most. brown gets into the top job and spends three years proving all his detractors correct, ending so thoroughly hoist by his own petard that he has effectively disappeared from public life.

seldon does an incredible job of creating these throughlines and setting the scene for the character flaws that made brown incapable of doing the top job, and while the level of detail is immense, it never feels superfluous or unwarranted. the whole book remains tight and interesting for its entire 500 page length (although a significant portion of this is footnotes). huge recommend.

[iain pardoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

AN EXCELLENT INSIGHT...

I found this book gave an insight to a complicated and inwardly tortured man, who became Prime Minister by the unsavoury tactic of making his predecessors life difficult and unworkable. Gordon Brown comes across as the great clunking fist so often portrayed in the broad sheet media. He surrounded himself with dubious characters who played a very dirty political game. Yet, there are times when he is revealed to be a frightened little boy desperately seeking his deceased fathers approval. Gordon Brown is to be given his place in history for his role on the world stage during the financial crisis and his decision to keep the UK out of the euro.

[Rob Wilkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good account, but much drier than Seldon's later books on Cameron and May. Less readable than eg Rawnsley but still full of information.

[cp · Rating 4 out of 5]

A reminder of an earlier time when government was somewhat dysfunctional. You wondered then if it could get any worse. It could.

[Oliver Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very detailed analysis of the Brown premiership; you don't encounter anything close. My favourite aspect of political history is when they repeatedly describe what they had to eat.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insight.

[Jane Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense and detailed. For a reader with a deep interest in politics it's fascinating and disturbing. There is little here on policy, largely, it seems, because nobody in Brown's government was particularly interested in it. Yet there were things done which the next government were able to build on, shamefully. There is a detailed account of the negotiations with the Lib Dems after the 2010 election which I wish we had known about at the time.