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Anthony Seldon

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Sir Anthony Seldon
Born
Anthony Francis Seldon

(1953-08-02) 2 August 1953 (age 71)[1]
Stepney, London, England
NationalityBritish
Alma materWorcester College, Oxford (BA)
London School of Economics (PhD)
Polytechnic of Central London (MBA)
King's College London (PGCE)
Occupations
  • Head master
  • contemporary historian
  • commentator
  • political author
Known forMaster of Epsom College
Former master of Wellington College
Former vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham
Spouses
Joanna Pappworth
​
​
(m. 1982; died 2016)​
Sarah Sayer
​
(m. 2022)​
Children3
FatherArthur Seldon
Websiteanthonyseldon.co.uk

Sir Anthony Francis Seldon FRSA FRHistS FKC (born 2 August 1953)[1] is a British contemporary historian and educator. As an author, he is known for his political biographies of consecutive British Prime Ministers, John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. Seldon is the author or editor of more than 45 books on contemporary history, politics and education.

He has been headmaster of independent schools Wellington College, Epsom College and Brighton College.[2] In 2009, he set up The Wellington Academy, the first state school to carry the name of its founding independent school.[3] He was vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham from 2015 to 2020,[4] when he was succeeded by James Tooley.[5]

He was the co-founder and first director of the Centre for Contemporary British History, is the co-founder of Action for Happiness,[6] is a governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company,[7] and is on the board of a number of charities and educational bodies.

He is honorary historical adviser to 10 Downing Street and a member of the First World War Centenary Culture Committee. Seldon was knighted in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to education and modern political history.[8][9]

Early life and education

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Seldon was born in Stepney,[10] the youngest son of economist Arthur Seldon (born Abraham Margolis), who co-founded the Institute of Economic Affairs and directed academic affairs at the think tank for 30 years.[1] His father was the child of Jewish immigrants who fled antisemitic pogroms in Russia.[11]

Seldon was educated first at Bickley Park School,[12] then Tonbridge School, followed by Worcester College, Oxford, where he took a BA in PPE. In 1981, he gained a PhD in Economics at the London School of Economics.[13] He has an MBA from the Polytechnic of Central London.[1] He obtained a PGCE from King's College London. [citation needed]

Career

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Seldon's first teaching appointment was at Whitgift School in Croydon in 1983. He became head of Politics and taught in the sixth form there. 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 London. He then became headmaster of Brighton College from September 1997 until he joined Wellington College in January 2006 as its 13th master. He became executive principal at The Wellington Academy (a separate school) in 2013.[citation needed]

He took a three-month sabbatical from January to March 2014 (leaving Wellington to be run in the interim by his second master, Robin Dyer, who as acting master, stated it would be "business as usual").[14] Seldon announced on 23 April 2014 that he would be leaving Wellington College in the summer of 2015, after nearly ten years as the 13th master.[15]

In September 2015, he replaced Terence Kealey as vice-chancellor of University of Buckingham, the first private university in Britain.[16]

In March 2023, he replaced Emma Pattison as head master of Epsom College, following her murder.[17]

History, politics and other writing

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Seldon's books include:

  • Churchill's Indian Summer (1981),[18] which won a Best First Work Prize
  • Major, A Political Life (1997)[19]
  • The Powers Behind the Prime Minister (1999) co-written with Professor Dennis Kavanagh[20]
  • 10 Downing Street: The Illustrated History (2000)[21]
  • The Foreign Office: The Illustrated History Of The Place And Its People (2001)[22]
  • Blair (2004)[23]
  • Blair Unbound (2007)[24]
  • Trust (2009)[25]
  • Brown at 10 (2010) with Guy Lodge;[26]
  • Public Schools and The Great War (2013) with David Walsh;[27]
  • The Architecture of Diplomacy: The British Ambassador's Residence in Washington (2014) with Daniel Collings;[28]
  • Cameron at 10 (2015) with Peter Snowdon

He has edited many books, including the series The Thatcher Effect (1989):[29]

  • The Major Effect (1994);[30]
  • The Blair Effect (2001)[31]
  • The Blair Effect 2001–2005 (2005)[32]
  • Blair's Britain (2007)[33]
  • The Coalition Effect (2015) with Dr Mike Finn[34]
  • The Cabinet Office 1916–2016; The Birth of Modern British Government, Biteback 2016, The Fourth Education Revolution with Oladimeji Abidoye, Buckingham University Press, 2018, May at 10, with Raymond Newell, Biteback, 2019, Public Schools and the Second World War, with David Walsh, Pen & Sword, 2020 and Johnson at 10 with Raymond Newell, Atlantic, 2023.[35]
  • Other edited books include:
    • Ruling Performance, with Professor Peter Hennessy and Conservative Century, with Professor Stuart Ball.
    • He has written a number of booklets on education, including Private and Public Education: The Divide Must End (2000)[36]
    • Partnership not Paternalism (2001); An End To Factory Schools (2010);[37]
    • The Politics of Optimism (2012); and School United (2014). His 2011 Cass Lecture was published as 'Why Schools? Why Universities?'[38]
  • He also founded two journals:

During his time at Brighton College, Seldon wrote Brave New City: Brighton & Hove Past, Present, Future, an analysis of the city of Brighton and Hove focused principally on its buildings.[39]

Work in education

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Seldon is a head teacher and appears on television and radio and in the press,[40] and has written regularly for national newspapers including The Times,[41] The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent and The Guardian.[42] His views on education have been sought by the government and political parties, with Seldon promoting co-education, the International Baccalaureate, independent education, the teaching of happiness and well-being, and "all-round" education.

Seldon has promoted well-being or happiness classes, which he introduced at Wellington College in 2006,[43] and campaigned for a holistic, personalised approach to education rather than what he calls "factory schools".[37][44] He is a proponent of the Harkness table teaching approach used in the US[45] and the 'Middle Years' approach of the IB,[46] as well a more international approach to education, including a focus on modern languages teaching[47][48] and setting up sister schools in China.[49] On Friday 17 February 2023, he was announced as the interim head of Epsom College, beginning in March 2023, following the death of the previous head, Emma Pattison.[50]

Achievements and awards

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Seldon has honorary doctorates or fellowships from the University of Buckingham,[51] the University of Brighton[52] and Richmond University[53] and is a former professor of Education at the College of Teachers.[54] He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS) and of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). He was appointed a fellow of King's College London (FKC) in 2013. He was knighted in the Queen's 2014 Birthday Honours list,[9] and in 2016 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Bath.

Other work

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In 1986 Seldon co-founded, with Professor Peter Hennessy, the Institute of Contemporary British History, a body whose aim is to promote research into, and the study of, British history since 1945. Seldon is a co-founder of Action for Happiness[6] with Richard Layard (Baron Layard), and Geoff Mulgan. He is also a patron of The Iris Project,[55] which runs literacy schemes through Latin in schools in deprived urban areas and of DrugFAM,[56] which supports families affected by a loved one's abuse of drugs or alcohol.

He was a board member of the Royal Shakespeare Company[57] and was executive producer of the 2017 film version of Journey's End.[58] He is the deputy chair and instigator of the Times Education Commission, former chair of the Comment Awards, president of the International Positive Education Network (IPEN), chair of the National Archives Trust and he was the originator of the Via Sacra/Western Front Way Walk.

Television and radio

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Among his television work, he has presented In Search of Tony Blair (Channel 4, 2004)[59] and Trust Politics (BBC Two, 2010).[60]

Family

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Seldon was married to Joanna Pappworth, who died from endocrine cancer in December 2016. Joanna was the daughter of medical ethicist Maurice Henry Pappworth. Anthony and Joanna met at Oxford, married in 1982, and had three children: Jessica, Susannah and Adam.[61] In 2022 he married Sarah Sayer; she had been a language teacher at Wellington College.[62]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "'SELDON, Anthony Francis', Who's Who 2013, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2013; online edn, Oxford University Press". Archived from the original on 15 June 2024. Retrieved 14 December 2011.(subscription required)
  2. ^ "School Results". The Times. Archived from the original on 15 June 2024. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  3. ^ "Wellington College to run Academy". BBC website. 29 April 2008. Archived from the original on 3 May 2008. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  4. ^ "Sir Anthony Seldon to leave the University of Buckingham". The Bucks Herald. 1 May 2020. Archived from the original on 11 January 2021. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  5. ^ University of Buckingham honours its offers to students regardless of A-level grades, Buckingham and Winslow Advertiser, 19 August 2020
  6. ^ a b "Dr Anthony Seldon: Truly happy people are made, not born". The Independent. London. 13 April 2011. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  7. ^ "RSC Annual Report 2011-12" (PDF). Royal Shakespeare Company. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 June 2013. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  8. ^ "No. 60895". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 June 2014. p. b2.
  9. ^ a b "John Dunford and Anthony Seldon among educationalists recognised in honours list". London. 13 June 2014. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  10. ^ England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007
  11. ^ "How to go beyond happiness". The Daily Telegraph. 2015. Archived from the original on 15 June 2024. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  12. ^ "Former pupils invited to help school celebrate centenary". Edenbridge Chronicle. Archived from the original on 5 July 2020. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  13. ^ Seldon, Anthony (1981). The Churchill Government of 1951–55: a study of personalities and policy making (PhD thesis). London School of Economics. Archived from the original on 19 April 2013.
  14. ^ Hurst, Greg (13 December 2013). "Gove's reform champion to take sabbatical". The Times. Archived from the original on 16 March 2014. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
  15. ^ "Anthony Seldon to retire". Wellington College. 22 April 2014. Archived from the original on 19 March 2018. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  16. ^ Appointment of Sir Anthony Seldon as Vice-Chancellor, University of Buckingham, 16 April 2015
  17. ^ "Epsom College: New head appointed after school gun deaths". BBC News. 17 February 2023. Archived from the original on 17 February 2023. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
  18. ^ Seldon, Anthony (2010). Churchill's Indian Summer: The Conservative Government, 1951–1955. Faber and Faber. p. 694. ISBN 978-0571272693.
  19. ^ Seldon, Anthony (1997). Major: A Political Life. W&N. p. 856. ISBN 0297816071.
  20. ^ Dennis Kavanagh, Anthony Seldon (1999). The Powers Behind the Prime Minister: The Hidden Influence of Number Ten. HarperCollins. p. 352. ISBN 0002570866.
  21. ^ Seldon, Anthony (1999). 10 Downing Street: The Illustrated History. HarperCollins Illustrated. p. 232. ISBN 0004140737.
  22. ^ Seldon, Anthony (2000). The Foreign Office: The Illustrated History Of The Place And Its People. HarperCollins Illustrated. p. 240. ISBN 000710118X.
  23. ^ Seldon, Anthony (2005). Blair. Free Press. p. 768. ISBN 0743232127.
  24. ^ Seldon, Anthony (2008). Blair Unbound. Pocket Books. p. 608. ISBN 978-1847390905.
  25. ^ Seldon, Anthony (2010). Trust: How We Lost it and How to Get it Back. Biteback. p. 256. ISBN 978-1849540018.
  26. ^ Anthony Seldon, Guy Lodge (2011). Brown at 10. Biteback Publishing. pp. 560. ISBN 978-1849541220.
  27. ^ Anthony Seldon, David Walsh (2013). Public Schools and the Great War. Pen & Sword Military. p. 320. ISBN 978-1781593080.
  28. ^ The Architecture of Diplomacy: The British Ambassador's Residence in Washington : Seldon, Anthony, Collings, Daniel: Amazon.co.uk: Books. Flammarion. 21 April 2014. ISBN 978-2081299023.
  29. ^ Dennis Kavanagh, Anthony Seldon (1989). The Thatcher Effect: A Decade of Change. Oxford Paperbacks. p. 372. ISBN 0198277466.
  30. ^ Dennis Kavanagh, Anthony Seldon (1994). The Major Effect. Macmillan. p. 288. ISBN 0333622731.
  31. ^ Seldon, Anthony (2001). The Blair Effect. Little, Brown. ISBN 0316856363.
  32. ^ Seldon, Anthony (2005). The Blair Effect, 2001–5. Cambridge University Press. p. 496. ISBN 0521678609.
  33. ^ Seldon, Anthony (2007). Blair's Britain, 1997–2007. Cambridge University Press. p. 708. ISBN 978-0521709460.
  34. ^ Seldon, Anthony; Finn, Mike (2015). The Coalition Effect, 2010–2015. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1107440180.
  35. ^ Adams, Tim (30 April 2023). "Anthony Seldon on Boris Johnson: 'At his heart, he is extraordinarily empty'". The Observer. Archived from the original on 15 June 2024. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
  36. ^ Seldon, Anthony (2000). Public & Private Education: The Divide Must End. The Social Market Foundation. ISBN 1874097941.
  37. ^ a b Seldon, Anthony (2010). An End To Factory Schools. Centre for Policy Studies. p. 88. ISBN 978-1906996192.
  38. ^ Seldon, Anthony. "Why Schools, Why Universities?". Sir John Cass's Foundation. Archived from the original on 26 November 2013. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  39. ^ Seldon, Anthony (2002). Brave New City: Brighton & Hove Past, Present, Future. Lewes: Pomegranate Press. Introduction. ISBN 0-9542587-1-1.
  40. ^ "Anthony Seldon". Journalisted. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  41. ^ "Anthony Seldon". The Times. Archived from the original on 15 August 2013. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  42. ^ "Anthony Seldon". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 15 June 2024. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  43. ^ Payne, Stewart (18 April 2006). "School to give pupils lessons in happiness". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 15 June 2024. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  44. ^ Seldon, Anthony (15 May 2012). "We need to fix Britain's character flaws". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 1 November 2013. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  45. ^ Paton, Graeme (6 October 2008). "Oval Harkness table plan to stop pupils hiding in class". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 16 July 2013. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  46. ^ "Wellington College to poll parents on plan to drop GCSEs in favour of Baccalaureate". The Daily Telegraph. London. 16 December 2008. Archived from the original on 25 February 2014. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  47. ^ Seldon, Anthony. "Keynote speech: The Schools Network Annual Languages Conference, University of Warwick. 6 October 2011" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
  48. ^ "Mandarin language centre opens at Wellington College". BBC News. 2 June 2012. Archived from the original on 26 February 2014. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  49. ^ "Wellington College tightens China link". The Times. 1 March 2013. Archived from the original on 15 June 2024. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  50. ^ "Epsom College: New head appointed after school gun deaths". BBC News. 17 February 2023. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
  51. ^ "University of Buckingham". Website. Archived from the original on 7 January 2016. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  52. ^ "University of Brighton Honorary Doctorates". Website. Archived from the original on 5 September 2013. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  53. ^ "University of Richmond Honorary Degree Recipients". Website. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  54. ^ "College of Teachers". Website. Archived from the original on 26 September 2013. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  55. ^ "The Iris Project". Website. Archived from the original on 11 August 2013. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  56. ^ "DrugFAM". Website. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  57. ^ "Latest Press Releases | Royal Shakespeare Company".
  58. ^ "Journey's End (2017) – IMDb". IMDb.
  59. ^ "In search of Tony Blair". Channel 4. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  60. ^ "Trust Politics". Website. BBC. Archived from the original on 14 November 2011. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  61. ^ Butter, Susannah (27 January 2017). "Sir Anthony Seldon on his late wife: 'She was spectacular, ferociously intelligent - I was in awe of her'". Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 9 February 2018. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
  62. ^ Clarence-Smith, Louisa (17 February 2023). "Epsom College appoints Sir Anthony Seldon as new headteacher after Emma Pattison tragedy". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 18 February 2023. Retrieved 18 February 2023. Sir Anthony married Sarah Sayer, a former French teacher at Wellington College, last year.
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Academic offices
Preceded by Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham
2015–2020 		Succeeded by
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