Sir Anthony Francis Seldon FRSA FRHistS FKC (born 2 August 1953) is a British educator and contemporary historian. As an author, he is known in part for his political biographies of consecutive British Prime Ministers, John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson. He was the 13th master (headmaster) of Wellington College, one of Britain’s co-educational independent boarding schools, and is the current Head Master of Epsom College. He was vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham from 2015 to 2020, when he was succeeded by James Tooley. In 2009, he set up The Wellington Academy, the first state school to carry the name of its founding independent school. Before that, he was head of Brighton College.
Seldon is the author or editor of more than 45 books on contemporary history, politics, and education. He was the co-founder and first director of the Centre for Contemporary British History, is the co-founder of Action for Happiness, is a governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and is on the board of several charities and educational bodies.
He is honorary historical adviser to 10 Downing Street and a member of the First World War Centenary Culture Committee. Seldon was knighted in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to education and modern political history.
Selected Books in order of publication:
Churchill’s Indian Summer (1981)
Major, A Political Life (1997)
The Powers Behind the Prime Minister (1999) co-written with Professor Dennis Kavanagh;
10 Downing Street: The Illustrated History (2000);
The Foreign Office: The Illustrated History Of The Place And Its People (2001);
Blair (2004);
Blair Unbound (2007),
Trust (2009);
Brown at 10 (2010) with Guy Lodge;
Public Schools and The Great War (2013) with David Walsh;
The Architecture of Diplomacy: The British Ambassador’s Residence in Washington (2014) with Daniel Collings;
Cameron at 10 (2015) with Peter Snowdon.
Edited book:
The Thatcher Effect (1989);
The Major Effect (1994);
The Blair Effect (2001);
The Blair Effect 2001–2005 (2005);
Blair’s Britain (2007);
The Coalition Effect (2015) with Dr Mike Finn,
The Cabinet Office 1916-2016;
The Birth of Modern British Government, Biteback 2016,
The Fourth Education Revolution with Oladimeji Abidoye, Buckingham University Press, 2018,
May at 10, with Raymond Newell, Biteback, 2019,
Public Schools and the Second World War, with David Walsh, Pen & Sword, 2020 Johnson at 10 with Raymond Newell, Atlantic, 2023.
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