Anthony Seldon

Biographical Information
"Anthony Seldon is an authority on contemporary British history and headmaster of Wellington College, one of Britain's most famous independent schools. He is also author or editor of over 25 books on contemporary history, politics and education.

"After gaining an MA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Worcester College, Oxford, and a PhD at the London School of Economics, he qualified as a teacher at King's College, London, where he was awarded the top PGCE prize in his year. He also has an MBA. His first teaching appointment was at Whitgift School in Croydon in 1983, where he was Head of Politics. In 1989 he returned to his old school, Tonbridge, and became Head of History and General Studies. In 1993, he was appointed Deputy Headmaster and, ultimately, Acting Headmaster of St Dunstan's College in South London. He then became Headmaster of Brighton College from September 1997 until he joined Wellington College in January 2006 as 13th Master. He has honorary doctorates from the Universities of Brighton and Richmond and in 2007 was given a Chair at the College of Teachers as Professor of Education. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Arts.

"He founded, with Professor Peter Hennessy, the Institute of Contemporary British History, the internationally respected body whose aim is to promote research into, and the study of, British history since 1945. He is a co-founder of Action for Happiness with Lord Richard Layard and Geoff Mulgan. He is on the Advisory Board of the New College of the Humanities in London.

"Anthony Seldon's books include Churchill's Indian Summer, which won a Best First Work Prize; Britain Under Thatcher; The Thatcher Effect; Major, A Political Life, the authorised biography of the former Prime Minister; Conservative Century, the standard academic history of the Conservative Party; The Powers Behind the Prime Minister, co-written with Professor Dennis Kavanagh; Number 10: The Illustrated History; The Foreign Office: A History of the Place and its People; Blair and Blair Unbound, his acclaimed two-part biography of the former Prime Minister; three volumes of edited books on the Blair governments; and Trust: How We Lost it and How to Get it Back, published in September 2009. He has been historical consultant on the memoirs of several former Prime Ministers and Foreign Secretaries. In November 2010 he published, with Guy Lodge, a biography of Gordon Brown, called Brown at 10. His education booklets include An end to factory schools: An education manifesto 2010-2020 (Centre for Policy Studies) March 2010 (click here to download a copy), Public and Private Education: The Divide Must End and Partnership Not Paternalism."

His father was Arthur Seldon and his wife is Joanne Seldon.