“Revelatory … Hancock paints a vivid picture of how difficult it is for our leaders to translate policy into action”

--Tim Stanley, Daily Telegraph

“A helpful contribution to the public record … This is a story about what happens when the entire machinery of government is too clunky, too inadequate to respond to a crisis”

“Jaw-dropping”

--Daily Mail

“Explosive”

“This candid account tells the story of what it was like to be at the heart of things. It’s the first draft of history and will help anyone fighting like we did to handle a pandemic.”

--Michael Gove

“Unputdownable … What shines throughout this book is the eagerness with which Hancock seized the immense task presented to him – managing the national response to the worst pandemic in a century … There is much to learn here.”

Matt Hancock is the Conservative MP for West Suffolk. From 2018 to 2021, he was the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, during which time he led the UK government’s response to the pandemic. He served in government from 2012 in various roles including Minister for Skills, for Business and as Culture Secretary. When first appointed to attend Cabinet by David Cameron in 2014, he became the third youngest person to do so since the war, after Harold Wilson and William Hague. He holds degrees from Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and before entering politics he worked for his family’s computer software business and as an economist at the Bank of England. At Newmarket in 2012 he became the first sitting MP in a century to win a horse race, and in 2005 he broke the world record for the most northerly game of cricket before succumbing to frostbite. He retains all his fingers.

Isabel Oakeshott is an award-winning political journalist and broadcaster. She was political editor of the Sunday Times and co-wrote White Flag? An Examination of the UK’s Defence Capability with Michael Ashcroft; Farmageddon: An Investigation into the True Cost of Cheap Meat with Philip Lymbery; and various other non-fiction titles. She is international editor for Talk TV and writes for The Spectator, the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday.