Unmasking Our Leaders: Confessions of a Political Documentary-Maker

(Paperback)

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Our political leaders spend their careers spinning their images and polishing their achievements; Michael Cockerell has spent his professional life stripping off the gloss. Over fifty years, he has gained unrivalled access to the secret chambers of Westminster and Whitehall. Here, he reveals in illuminating and often hilarious stories what our top politicians are really like behind the mask.

Drawing on his unique experience of having filmed all the past ten Prime Ministers, Cockerell tells how he manages to lull some of the most wary people in the land into candour, and shows how questions of sex are never far from the surface in Westminster.

Revealing how our politicians have reacted during some of the most pivotal events in our recent history, Unmasking Our Leaders provides a compelling insight into a career working in political television and foreign reporting, where tensions, rivalries and life-threatening danger are all part of the package.

'As enthralling a history of modern British politics as you will find anywhereit is richly stuffed with anecdotes and gags and as compelling as a Jack Reacher thriller, though with fewer dead bodies.' Roger Alton, Daily Mail

'The most delightful, absorbing and thoroughly entertaining book about politics you will ever read. A triumph.' Alan Johnson

'Stuffed with intimate anecdotes and scattered with decades of his own scoops, Michael Cockerell reminds us why he is the master.' Laura Kuenssberg

'Hugely entertaining and revealing my political book of the year.' Iain Dale

'Michael Cockerell is the David Attenborough of the political animal kingdom endlessly fascinated and fascinating.' Rory Bremner

'The master chronicler of our political age tells the story behind the stories of those whove held power in Britain.' Nick Robinson

Author Bio

Michael Cockerell has been a BBC TV political reporter and documentary-maker for fifty years, winning a string of awards for his witty and eye-opening profiles of our top politicians. 'You are no one in British politics until you've been Cockerelled,' said one newspaper. He is an honorary fellow of Corpus Christi, Oxford, and was for ten years visiting professor of politics at Nottingham University. He is a regular radio broadcaster and writes for The Times, Daily Mail, The Guardian and The Spectator. Unmasking Our Leaders is his third book.