Blair Unbound

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View books by Anthony Seldon, Peter Snowdon, Daniel Collings.

Thorough, balanced, very good... but not an all time great - Rated
This is a very readable book - I enjoyed it and chomped my way through it in no time at all. (Bite sizes structure made it splendid reading on the loo in fact!).

Seldon has clearly had great access to Blair's advisors, though it's a bit light on new material from Blair's politician peers. There's a lot lifted from autobiographies from people like Campbell and Blunkett.

Analysis of issues is strong: very balanced and concise.

But - other than the marvelous blow by blow section on how Blair and his team handled the 7/7 bombings - the book a bit short on the human interest details that could have made this a really great book.

As it stands it's well worth a read for people interested in general modern UK politics, or those wishing to gain an insight in to the machinations of life inside Number 10 during the second half of the Blair years.

The best book on Blair yet, if not ever. - Rated
Judging by the footnotes, this book has been meticulously researched. The author evidently had access to Blair's advisors and close team. More of his witnesess are civil servants than politicians. As a result, it is actually a very balanced analysis. The reviews below miss this point, and are both clearly anti-Blair. This book isn't written to verbally bash the man. There is no reason for the author to be biased. He sets outs the facts, as reported by those close to the key events, and lets the reader interpret and judge the man, rather than the author doing it himself. This surely is the purpose of all contemporary biography. Let us leave it to future historians to decide this man's place in British and world politics.