Jon Davis, Director of The Strand Group and Lecturer, King's College London, and John Rentoul, Chief Political Commentator for The Independent on Sunday and Visiting Professor at King's College London

Jon Davis and John Rentoul jointly teach a course on the Blair government at King's College London, which began at Queen Mary University of London in 2008.

Dr Jon Davis is Director of The Strand Group at The Policy Institute, King's College London, and author of Prime Ministers and Whitehall (2007). He is the lecturer and coordinator of several other teaching modules including 'The History of the Prime Minister since 1945—in partnership with No. 10 Downing St', and 'The Treasury and an Introduction to Economic History—in partnership with HM Treasury'. He worked as an investment banker before turning to an academic career, and also spent a year in the Cabinet Office's Modernising Government Secretariat.

John Rentoul is Chief Political Commentator for The Independent, Visiting Professor at King's College London, and the author of an acclaimed biography of Tony Blair. He has worked previously as a political reporter at The Independent, the BBC, and the New Statesman. Together with his co-author Jon Davis, he has been running the Blair Government course since 2008 at Queen Mary and subsequently at KCL, in which many of the leading figures of the Blair administration have participated, including the former prime minister himself.

"Making me feel nostalgic for New Labour is quite an achievement. But the authors of a fascinating new book have somehow managed it ... a perceptive, scholarly study..." - Iain Martin, The Times

"A fascinating book." - Andrew Grice, The Independent

"... fascinating retrospective ... It draws upon the rich seam of material from a host of distinguished contributors ... We hear a whole range of voices with a unique and previously unheard contribution to make [...] an account like this is long overdue." - Alan Johnson, The Spectator

"A vital addition to the literature on the Blair government and New Labour ... a fascinating study, packed with first-hand accounts and primary sources, and one, as the authors posit, that the fair-minded reader will find particularly rewarding." - Robert Ledger, LSE Blogs

"Davis and Rentoul make generous use of fascinating first-hand testimony." - Oliver Wiseman, CapX

"Obviously well informed ... a useful source on the extreme disfunction of our unwritten constitution." - Natalie Bennett, Green World

"The best survey of New Labour to date..." - insidestory.org

"This is an impressive new analysis of the conduct of UK government over the period 1997 to 2007... While there have been numerous treatments of this subject, the authors [...] manage to offer something here which feels genuinely original and different... Davis and Rentoul show how to make contemporary history both insightful and engaging." - Society of Professional Economists

"Combining first-hand sources and independent judgement, this is the first book on the Blair-Brown years which moves beyond journalism, biography and memoir to being the first draft of history." - Ed Balls, Former Economic Secretary to the Treasury

"The authors have had unprecedented access to the key figures of the Blair-Brown era and made brilliant use of it. Their superbly written book is meticulously researched, rich in insight and wise in judgement." - Sir Michael Barber

"The Blair Government changed Britain radically and the reverberations echo through all our current debates. Now is the perfect time to review those years and this is the perfect guide." - Michael Gove