On Thursday THE PRESIDENTS is finally published! It feels a very long time since I started commissioning people to write essays about the 45 different presidents. People sometimes query this number and ask why then is Joe Biden number 46? Simple. Grover Cleveland served two separate terms and counts as 22 & 24. 

I've spent much of this weekend packing up the several hundred orders for the book that have come through Politicos.co.uk and the final batch will be sent out tomorrow so hopefully if you have ordered one you will get it by publication day. The publishers, Hodder & Stoughton, are holding a launch party for the book at Hatchards in London on Wednesday. We've timed it for 5pm-7pm so I don't miss my radio show! I'm delighted that many of the 45 contributors will be there to mark the occasion. It may be my name on the front of the book, and yes, I have spent many hours editing the essays, but there are really 45 different authors, and if the book sells well it is down to them. Admittedly, at times it was like herding cats, but we got there in the end! 



I really have learned so much through the process of editing the book. I thought I knew a reasonable amount about American history, but I was wrong. I now feel I have been properly educated on the motives of the Founding Fathers, the causes of the Civil War, the running sore of slavery that still affects modern day politics in the United States, but just as importantly the development of the office of the presidency. I had no idea that the Oval Office was only built in the early years of the twentieth century. I had assumed it had always been part of the White House. What the book also taught me about was the origins of the tricky relationship which existed between the US and the UK right up until the first half of the twentieth century. In a way it's quite remarkable the special relationship ever developed. 

The book is publshed in hardback at £25, on Kindle and as an audiobook via Audible. It will be published on Kindle and Audible in the US at the same time, but the hardback publication will be in late 2023. 

If you'd like a signed copy and want add to my workload (I encourage it!) you can order the book HERE. I'll do a personal dedication if you want to give it as a present at Christmas. Just fill in the Comment box at the end of the payment process. I've also got an offer on - 15% of you buy THE PRESIDENTS AND PRIME MINISTERS together. Click HERE.



The book is brilliantly illustrated by Zoom Rockman, and you can also buy sets of Presidential Playing Cards HERE and a set of 12 Presidential Mugs (together or individually) HERE. They all make great Christmas presidents... just saying!





As many of you know, the podcast series of THE PRIME MINISTERS has been incredibly successful, with around 100k downloads a month. The last episode is released in the morning which features me talking to historian Nigel Fletcher about Boris Johnson. Next week, we rename the podcast to THE PRESIDENTS AND PRIME MINISTERS. When we've finished profiing all 45 presidents with their contributors from the book, we'll then move on to PMs and presidents from around the world. The first episode features David Owen talking about Jimmy Carter.

Thank you so much to everyone who has bought the book so far. I really do appreciate it.