Sir Anthony Seldon is the country's top political historian and acknowledged national authority on all matters to do with the Government and Number 10. His book Churchill's Indian Summer: The Conservative Government, 1951–55 (1981), was published forty years ago, and since then he has written or edited many books, including The Blair Effect, 2001-5 (Cambridge, 2005), The Coalition Effect, 2010–2015 (Cambridge, 2015) and The Impossible Office (Cambridge, 2024). He has been the honorary historian at Number 10 Downing Street, chair of the National Archives Trust, and has interviewed virtually all senior figures who have worked in Number 10 in the last fifty years. Tom Egerton has worked with Anthony Seldon on various publications, including The Sunday Times bestseller Johnson at 10 and The Impossible Office. He is the Editor and founder of The Political Inquiry and was educated in history and politics at the University of Warwick.

'damning indictment of Tory rule…15 nearly always brutal judgements…probing the differences governments make shorn of the distortions of party-politics and the ephemera of day-to-day public debate…should be read by all political geeks, but most of all, if he can find the time, by the man who will next occupy No 10, Keir Starmer. It offers a withering obituary on a political chapter that has done much harm and little good.' Mark Hennessy, Irish Time

• Introduction: what difference do governments make? Anthony Seldon; 1. Thirteen wasted years? (1951–1964) Peter Kellner; 2. External shocks Tom Egerton; 3. The economy Paul Johnson, Carl Emmerson and Nick Ridpath; 4. Foreign and defence Michael Clarke; 5. Health Rachel Sylvester; 6. Education Alan Smithers; 7. Environment Dieter Helm; 8. Parting the unions Brendan O'Leary; 9. Society and health inequalities Michael Marmot and Clare Bambra; 10. Science Jon Agar; 11. Culture John Kampfner; 12. Government, parliament and the constitution Meg Russell; 13. The Conservative Party Tim Bale; 14. The realigning party system Paul Webb; 15. Elections and voting John Curtice; Conclusion: Fourteen wasted years? The verdict Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton.