Tony Blair has dominated British political life for more thana decade. Like Margaret Thatcher before him, he has changed theterms of political debate and provoked as much condemnation asadmiration. At the end of his era in power, this book presents awide-ranging overview of the achievements and failures of the Blairgovernments. Bringing together Britain's most eminent academics andcommentators on British politics and society, it examines theeffect of the Prime Minister and his administration on themachinery of government, economic and social policy and foreignrelations. Combining serious scholarship with clarity andaccessibility, this book represents the authoritative verdict onthe impact of the Blair years on British politics andsociety. Covers the full term of Blair's leadership of Labour ? AnthonySeldon is a recognized authority on British Prime Ministers, andTony Blair in particular ? Uniquely authoritative with a superbcollection of contributors including John Curtice, Vernon Bogdanor,Sir La
One climbed to the very top of the social ladder, the otherchose to live among tramps. One was a celebrity at twenty-three,the other virtually unknown until his dying days. One wasright-wing and religious, the other a socialist and an atheist.Yet, as this ingenious and important new book reveals, at the heartof their lives and writing, Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell wereessentially the same man. Orwell is best known for "Animal Farm"and "1984," Waugh for "Brideshead Revisited" and comic novels like"Scoop" and "Vile Bodies." How ever different they may seem, thesetwo towering figures of twentieth-century literature are linked forthe first time in this engaging and unconventional biography, whichgoes beyond the story of their amazing lives to reach the core oftheir beliefs-a shared vision that was startlingly prescient aboutour own troubled times. Both Waugh and Orwell were born in 1903,into the same comfortable stratum of England's class-obsessedsociety. But at first glance they seem to have lived