Stephen Wall, former member of the British Diplomatic Service,

Sir Stephen Wall was, for 35 years, a British diplomat. He worked closely for five British Foreign Secretaries and for three Prime Ministers. He took part in the negotiation of five European Treaties and was for five years the UK's Permanent Representative to the EU. He was Prime Minister Tony Blair's senior official adviser on EU issues.

"As a senior advisor on European affairs to multiple prime ministers, retired diplomat Wall is particularly well qualified to chronicle Britain's tortured relationship with Europe ... readers familiar with British politics and recent history will fully appreciate his fascinating personal insights about prominent UK politicians or the behind-the-scenes glimpses of European diplomacy that he provides." -- P. C. Kennedy, CHOICE

"Wall tells this sad tale with authority, expertise and a gift for lucid explanations of complex issues and convoluted negotiations." -- Andrew Rawnsley, The Observer

"A deft and witty account of Britain's relationship with the EU" -- Robert Saunders, Prospect

"Sir Stephen Wall, a retired diplomat, gives a [...] more detailed and more personal account, based on his many years of service in the Foreign Office, as a participant in the negotiation of no fewer than five European treaties, and as former UK Permanent Representative to the EU." -- Richard J. Evans, Times Literary Supplement

"[Reluctant European] is a fine overview of Britain in European over the last 50 years." -- Paul Donnelley, The Express

"This book is intended mainly as a dispassionate account of Britain's European policy over the last 75 years: an aim it more than meets. But it also offers hints on how to survive official life. One method is to enjoy the comic side of things." -- Andrew Gimson, Conservative Home

"Stephen Wall was at the heart of UK relations with Europe for many years. He writes with authority, and his tale is told as the drama it was." -- The Right Honourable Sir John Major KG CH, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1990-1997

"A witty, penetrating account of the United Kingdom's troubled relationship with the European project since 1945, written with an insider's knowledge and a historian's authority." -- Gill Bennett, Former Chief Historian, Foreign & Commonwealth Office

"Much ink has been spilled examining what happened in the UK's referendum in 2016. Finally, Stephen Wall, drawing on extensive diplomatic experience as well as years spent in the archives, has put Brexit into longer term perspective, tracing the UK's fraught relationship with European integration from inception to the current day. A must read." -- Anand Menon, Director of The UK in a Changing Europe and Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at King's College, London