Wow, this was boring. Truss only had 49 days in power, so you'd think the book could be quite punchy: sadly, not so. It dragged and was full of boring and irrelevant historical data about long-dead prime ministers and their gaffs. That's not what I signed up for! I signed up to find out about Truss.....focus!

The book was always going to be light on material and whilst I have no doubt it was carefully researched, it feels "thrown together" and heavily padded with all of this stuff about other people.

Narration was perfectly adequate but not sympathetic.

Anthony Seldon has been writing books about British prime ministers for around 40 years but the lightning speed at which these have changed in recent times has made this a Herculean task. The leadership of Liz Truss lasted just 49 days and would seem more fitting for a pamphlet, but there is a huge amount to be said about her tenancy of Number 10 and Seldon does it in some style.

This is a fascinating look at her rise from rank outsider to win the leadership election, going back to her days in cabinet with Cameron (Seldon puts this down in part to Cameron’s need to promote more women) and tracing her frankly eccentric style and career. The sheer length of her time in cabinet suggests some skill in playing the political game but her weaknesses are also fairly clear. She comes across as a mix of arrogance, ambition and self doubt, shouting and swearing at those who irritate her and doing very little to win across any MPs who disagree with her, instead surrounding herself with close friends and those who will go along with her wishes (this seems to be especially the case with her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng). Seldon does try to give a balanced view though, giving credit where it is due, and is particularly warm about her family life.

It's fascinating to look back at this period which already seems so long ago. I’m an absolute political nerd and followed this closely at the time but I’d forgotten just how severe the crisis was. Seldon suggests the death of Queen Elizabeth II at the start of her prime ministership gave Truss rather too much time to think as everything came to a stop for the mourning period and that makes sense. She also seems in a desperate hurry as she is aware she has only two years (!) until the election and wants to get her ideas through as soon as possible, refusing to listen to any dissenters. The section covering the mini budget and subsequent crisis is particularly enthralling and underlines just how bad the financial situation became.

Seldon obviously has access to an incredible number of sources, both anonymous and on record, who give first hand detail of pretty much the whole premiership. Kwasi Kwarteng himself is happy to go on record and it’s clear the friendship is a thing of the past – he’s very critical of the decisions made, apologises for his part but is unwilling to shoulder the blame for everything that happened.

The book, subtitled How Not To Be Prime Minister, is split into 10 sections of things Truss failed to do (eg get all MPs on side, never do a u-turn on a major policy) and this works very well. It’s very clear and very persuasive and the writing is fast paced and gripping. I listened to the audiobook and the narration is excellent too.

Nobody comes out of this book very well, with all the plotting backstage made clear as well as the mistakes upfront. Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer must be conscious that they have this to look forward to and it will be interesting to see if Seldon has as many sources for a Labour leadership as he does Conservative. I haven’t read all the previous biographies and works Seldon has written but I will certainly do so now.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy in return for an honest review. I have also added this review to Amazon and Waterstones.

I’ve read a number of Anthony Seldon’s political biographies. He’s well informed, very easy to read and without exception, his accounts are warts and all. He stays well away from cloying sycophancy which so often accompanies a political biopic. Best of all, he allows the reader or listener to form their own conclusions about the subject and doesn’t make personal judgements.

He’s been around Westminster for many years and has built an army of resources close to every minister or prime minister. There are colleagues who’ve worked with the individual, senior civil servants, other MPs and often the individual who is the subject of the book. His account of Liz Truss’s short tenure follows the same pattern. As a PM, for me she came from nowhere. I knew her as a government minister, but she appeared rather inconsequential. What’s amazing and really well defined in these biographies is the duplicity and cunning, exercised from an early stage, to ensure that personal gain is maximised. Truss set her sights on number 10 and once in the crosshairs, that target never wavered, I found it remarkable that although she had some difficulty garnering support, she was still able to achieve her aim. That was often due to the antics of others who carefully gauged which ring to throw their hat into.

With the exception of very very few (Simon Case is a notable exception), no one comes out of this covered in glory, The plotting, conniving duplicity that goes on daily is astounding and it’s horribly clear that the will of the electorate is of little or no consequence. Politicians are there to serve themselves, not the people they were elected to represent. Truss remains something if an enigma. Clearly driven, she has intellect but a strange and disturbing lack of emotional intelligence. Her lack of empathy, recorded here on a number of occasions, makes her capricious and unfathomable.

This biography is a worthy addition to the number 10 range. I had the audio version with excellent narration throughout.