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Byline: Anthony Seldon At a May Ball in Cambridge in 1913, Wilfred Willett met Eileen Stenhouse and fell headlong in love. As did she. Wilfred had just finished at Trinity, [...]

Byline: ANTHONY SELDON Michael Gove gave a seminal though little-reported speech last Thursday, his clearest statement yet of his aim for politicians to hand back the education system to the [...]

Byline: Anthony Seldon The furore over GCSE English has dominated this year's exam results, to the detriment of the achievement of hundreds of thousands of students who have achieved spectacularly [...]

Byline: ANTHONY SELDON The morning after the night before, and it's time for the plaudits. Stand up the GCSE candidates – you worked extremely hard and many of you secured [...]

Byline: ANTHONY SELDON Lord Moynihan, chairman of the British Olympic Association, touched a very raw nerve when he said last week that 'one of the worst statistics in British sport' [...]

Byline: ANTHONY SELDON Character, and specifically its neglect, is the number one issue of our age. A society that is not grounded in deep values, that does not know who [...]

Byline: Lucy Worsley and Anthony Seldon In the cold November of 2005, 20 colleagues and I locked ourselves into Princess Margaret's bedroom for a week. At that time, Historic Royal [...]

Byline: ANTHONY SELDON A revolution in British schools is happening under our noses. As Michael Gove announced last week, there are now 1,529 academies, compared with only 200 when the [...]

Byline: Anthony Seldon 'I'm really worried, sir,' one of my pupils said to me a few years ago. 'I've got four exams next week and I just don't know where [...]

Byline: ANTHONY SELDON British independent schools might be the jewel in the crown of education worldwide, but they are having a challenging time back at home. Old Etonian David Cameron [...]

Tony Blair's memoir, A Journey , has surprised many with its candour. The book was written off by some in advance of its publication yesterday as likely to be self-serving [...]

Byline: Anthony Seldon It is, without a doubt, the publishing event of the year. On Wednesday Tony Blair's memoirs, A Journey, arrives in bookshops. Not since Margaret Thatcher's own tome [...]

Byline: Anthony Seldon I found studying for my A-levels in the Seventies the most stimulating academic experience of my life. For English, we spent the entire lower sixth reading poetry, [...]

Byline: Anthony Seldon 'I did not foresee it,' Gordon Brown was heard to say on May 7, 2010. But then the Gordon Brown story is a Shakespearean tragedy of King [...]

Byline: Anthony Seldon Forget the election, the Clegg bounces and the Brown gyrations. Blank out Icelandic volcanoes and flight disruptions. For today is the happy conjunction of St George's Day [...]

Byline: Anthony Seldon Ihave been vastly entertained by the letters on school reports in the Telegraph. My favourite came from the history teacher who remarked: 'When the workers of the [...]

'Would you accept the Republican nomination for President in 1980?'' Margaret Thatcher was asked at a Foreign Policy Association lunch in New York on December 18, 1979. The scribbled note, [...]

Tony Blair's beaming and tanned face was all over the newspapers yesterday. There he was on the front pages shaking hands with an almost star-struck President Obama, while elsewhere there [...]

Seldon's 2004 biography, Blair , discussed the premier's first term after his 1997 landslide victory. Blair Unbound presents an exhaustive account of the Prime Minister's career from 2001 up to [...]

Everyone is suddenly talking about the teaching of happiness, well-being or 'positive psychology'. When my school, Wellington College, announced last year it was to teach happiness, in partnership with the [...]

No democratic political party in history, anywhere in the world, has matched the record of success of the Conservative party. Taking the long Conservative century from 1886 to 1997, non-Conservative [...]

The family of Conservative peer Viscount Cranborne has played a very significant role in politics in the UK in the 20th century. Viscount Cranborne himself has shown considerable talent for not making enemies and has been popular across the Conservative party. However, he has never quite fulfilled the potential of his instincts and abilities. He has many conservative instincts, but has also shown that he is willing to go against convention.

The general public know very little about the real interests and qualities of UK prime minister John Major. He has become an increasingly private figure throughout his time in office as criticism of him has become more extensive. It is widely believed that he has been lucky to remain in power through a series of crises, but this view gives no credit to his abilities. In contrast to the public perception of him, he is actually extremely ambitious and stubborn, and has great stamina and courage.

Historic precedents suggest that the UK Conservative Party will be unable to win the next general election following its huge losses in local elections on May 4, 1995. Nine factors contributed to the Conservatives' defeats in 1906, 1929, 1945, 1964 and 1974. Not only are all nine factors present in 1995, but six are present in acute form. The Conservatives recovered from massive upsets in 1906 and 1945, but parallels between the party's fortunes in the first and final decades of the 20th century suggest that the Labour Party could enjoy a prolonged period in power.