Landslide!: How Big Ideas Win Big Majorities

by Chris West

“Fresh and interesting.” Lord David Willetts, former Minister for Universities and Science and author of The Pinch .

Landslide! looks at the last 120 years of British political history. It examines the electoral triumphs of the 1906 New Liberals, Lloyd George, Stanley Baldwin, Clement Attlee, Harold Macmillan, Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and Boris Johnson, and shows how they created original and powerful 'Big Ideas' that drove their parties to the ultimate in political success - a landslide victory.

It models how landslide victories are created - but also how these once-mighty programmes inevitably ran out of road as what had once made them strong became ever more of a hindrance in fast-changing times.

The book goes on to ask where we are in this cycle now, and throws down a challenge to progressive politicians. History, it argues, shows over and over again that if they to win big, they must think big.

“Quirky, intelligent and painfully timely.” Mark Prisk, former Minister of State for Business and Enterprise.

234 pages, Paperback

Published January 9, 2023

About the author

I grew up in a country village north of London. As a boy I filled endless notebooks with stories - not all of them finished! As a young man I played in various (unsuccessful) bands, then worked in the City of London. I studied philosophy and economics as a 'mature' student (though I wasn't very mature). After leaving uni I went backpacking in China, and wrote a book about that adventure which came out in 1991. Since then, writing has (along with family) been at the heart of my life, though I've had other jobs, too, largely in Marketing and PR, working with small businesses. In 2008, I found an old stamp album in the attic of my parents' old house, and became fascinated by the contents and the way they seemed to mirror history. Each stamp was a tiny, rectangular time machine! In the end, I had to write a book along these lines: A History of Britain in 36 Postage Stamps was the result. I have now done the same for the USA - a fascinating journey into American history (and a great pleasure to collect the nation's stamps). I live in North Hertfordshire with my wife and daughter.

a.k.a Christopher West|6453491].