Chums

Power. Privilege. Parties. It's a very small world at the top.

An extraordinary book ... I got angrier and angrier and angrier as I read it

A searing onslaught on the smirking Oxford insinuation that politics is all just a game. It isn't. It matters

A devastating portrait of the arrogant rogues and chancers who have spent the past thirteen years playing at politics instead of governing

A gripping read ... exquisite and depressing in equal measure

A sparkling firework of a book

Incisive, insightful and timely

Fascinating ... The picture Kuper draws is of a nation with a decadent and deeply unprofessional ruling class, a diagnosis with which it is impossible to disagree

Immensely entertaining ... a tremendous romp jam-packed with delicious indiscretions

A brilliant book

A penetrating analysis of the connections that enabled an incestuous university network to dominate Westminster and give birth to Brexit ... perceptive and full of surprises

Johnson, Cameron, Rees-Mogg, Gove and Cummings all feature in this look at the hidden depths of our current political establishment and its inextricable link to Eton and, in particular, Oxford University

Shows how the culture of Oxford decisively influenced the tone of British politics and led to Brexit. Brilliantly written, it gripped me

Kuper is alert to the deficiencies of the Oxford Union style, the tendency to substitute some glib debating point for hard-headed analysis ... Engagingly brief with delightful details

Intellectually bracing ... a deep dive into the culture of the upper-crust public schools and university that produced ten of the UK's 15 post-war prime ministers

Elegant, witty, economical ... it is absurd how much influence this tiny, moneyed circle has been able to wield, and deeply depressing

Chums is not just about the smallness of Britain's privileged elite or the early advantages it enjoys. Simon Kuper goes further ... to critique a system that attaches more importance to winning debates than shaping policy

The best ever written dissection of the formation for what passes as the modern Tory Party's leadership

A snapshot of a time gone by, bringing alive 1980s Oxford in vivid detail ... a thrilling read

Engaging and detailed ... [This] may be the last generation of such Oxford Tories, yet their policies may well influence the United Kingdom for generations

[A] highly entertaining, and often infuriating examination of the clique of Oxford Tories that gave us Brexit

Praise for The Happy Traitor: Kuper provides a different and valuable perspective, humane and informative

Truly enthralling ... a deeply human read, wonderfully written, on the foibles of a fascinating, flawed, treacherous and sort of likeable character

The most comprehensive and insightful biography to date

Readers who prefer their politics polemical (and Britain in Europe) need look no further than Simon Kuper

Simon Kuper is an author and Financial Times journalist, born in Uganda and raised around the world. An Oxford graduate, he later attended Harvard as a Kennedy Scholar. He has written for the Observer, The Times and Guardian, and is also the author of The Happy Traitor.