The Not Quite Prime Ministers: Leaders of the Opposition 1783-2020

History is written by the winners, they say. And more often than not, it is written about them too. Books have been published chronicling all of the UK’s Prime Ministers – those individuals who somehow made it to the top of the greasy pole of politics, however short or undistinguished their tenure at No. 10.

But what about those who failed to make it? Leaders of the Opposition present themselves as the alternative Prime Minister, and many of them have indeed gone on to take power. But many ...