Anthony Seldon

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Dr Anthony F. Seldon MA, PhD, FRSA, MBA, FRHisS is a political commentator best known as Tony Blair's biographer and the Master of Wellington College. He is the son of the economist Dr Arthur Seldon.

Educated at Tonbridge School and a graduate of Worcester College, Oxford, Seldon later went on to study at the London School of Economics, King's College, London and the Polytechnic of Central London (now the University of Westminster).^{[citation needed]}

He served as head of politics and sixth form at Whitgift School from 1983-89, head of history and general studies at Tonbridge School 1989-93, deputy headmaster of St. Dunstan's College 1993-97 and headmaster of Brighton College 1997-2005.^[1] He is currently the 13th Master of Wellington College, where he has introduced co-education in all years and pledged to return the school to the top academic division.^{[citation needed]}

It is for his writing as Tony Blair's biographer that Dr Seldon is best known. His biographies The Blair Effect (1997-01 and 2001-05) and Blair (in cooperation with which a Channel 4 documentary was made) are authoritative works, for which substantial access to Blair was granted. However, critics have dismissed Seldon as a lickspittle whose biographies amount to a self-justifying 'authorised version' from Blair himself [1].

Dr Seldon appears regularly in the national press and has written or edited many other books,^{[citation needed]} including the Thatcher Effect, Britain under Thatcher (with Daniel Collings), Major, A Political Life, Number 10: the illustrated history, and he has also co-authored an illustrated history of the Conservative Party (with Peter Snowdon), which includes a foreword by Michael Howard. His books on 10 Downing Street and John Major are the official biographies.

Dr Seldon founded, with Peter Hennessy, the Institute of Contemporary British History. He also organises an annual education conference, which in the past has included guest speakers such as Charles Clarke.

[edit] Videos

Tony Blair in History Anthony Seldon summarizes his view of Tony Blair's accomplishments and challenges at this video online opening a conference on eight years of Blair government, in May 2006