Anthony Seldon

Early life and education

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

Seldon was educated first at Dulwich College Preparatory School, and Bickley Park School, and 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. He has an MBA from the Polytechnic of Central London. He obtained a PGCE from King's College London.

Career

Seldon's first teaching appointment was at Whitgift School in Croydon in 1983; he became head of Politics. 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.

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"). 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.

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

In March 2023, he replaced Emma Pattison as head master of Epsom College, following her murder. In September 2024 he returned to Wellington College as the Founding Director of Wellington College Education to lead its development and evolution of global education, and to "shape and refine what education should mean in the mid-21st century."

History, politics and other writing

Seldon's books include:

• Churchill's Indian Summer (1981), which won a Best First Work Prize

• Major, A Political Life (1997)

• The Powers Behind the Prime Minister (1999) with Professor Dennis Kavanagh

• 10 Downing Street: The Illustrated History (2000)

• The Foreign Office: The Illustrated History Of The Place And Its People (2001)

• Blair (2004)

• Blair Unbound (2007)

• Trust (2009)

• Brown at 10 (2010) with Guy Lodge

• Public Schools and The Great War (2013) with David Walsh

• The Architecture of Diplomacy: The British Ambassador's Residence in Washington (2014) with Daniel Collings

• Cameron at 10 (2015) with Peter Snowdon

• May at 10 (2020) with Raymond Newell

• Johnson at 10 (2024) with Raymond Newell

• Truss at 10 (2024) with Jonathan Meakin

• Path for Peace (2023)

• The Impossible Office (2024) with Jonathan Meakin, Illias Thoms and Tom Egerton

• History of the British Prime Minister He has edited many books, including the series The Thatcher Effect (1989):

• The Major Effect (1994);

• The Blair Effect (2001)

• The Blair Effect 2001–2005 (2005)

• Blair's Britain (2007)

• The Coalition Effect (2015) with Dr Mike Finn

• The Conservative Effect (2024) with Tom Egerton

• The Fourth Education Revolution with Oladimeji Abidoye; Buckingham University Press, 2018

• Public Schools and the Second World War, with David Walsh, Pen & Sword, 2020

• 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)
  • Partnership not Paternalism (2001); An End To Factory Schools (2010);
  • The Politics of Optimism (2012); and School United (2014). His 2011 Cass Lecture was published as 'Why Schools? Why Universities?'

• He also founded two journals:

  • Contemporary Record in 1987, renamed in 1996 as Contemporary British History
  • and Twentieth Century British History in 1990, renamed Modern British History in 2024.

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.

Work in education

Seldon is a headteacher and appears on television and radio and in the press, and has written regularly for national newspapers including The Times, The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent and The Guardian. 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, and campaigned for a holistic, personalised approach to education rather than what he calls "factory schools". He is a proponent of the Harkness table teaching approach used in the US and the 'Middle Years' approach of the IB, as well a more international approach to education, including a focus on modern languages teaching and setting up sister schools in China. 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. He is now back at Wellington College as the Founding Director of Wellington College Education.

Achievements and awards

Seldon has honorary doctorates or fellowships from the University of Buckingham, the University of Brighton and Richmond University and is a former professor of Education at the College of Teachers. 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, and in 2016 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Bath.

Other work

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 which runs literacy schemes through Latin in schools in deprived urban areas and of DrugFAM, which supports families affected by a loved one's abuse of drugs or alcohol.

He was a board member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and was executive producer of the 2017 film version of Journey's End. He was the deputy chair and instigator of the Times Education Commission and of the Institute of Government to Commission on the Centre, 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

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

Family

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. In 2022 he married Sarah Sayer; she had been a language teacher at Wellington College.

References

References

1. "'SELDON, Anthony Francis', ''Who's Who'' 2013, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2013; online edn, Oxford University Press".
2. "School Results". [[The Times]].
3. (29 April 2008). "Wellington College to run Academy". BBC website.
4. (1 May 2020). "Sir Anthony Seldon to leave the University of Buckingham". The Bucks Herald.
5. [https://www.buckinghamtoday.co.uk/education/university-buckingham-honours-its-offers-students-regardless-level-grades-2945935 University of Buckingham honours its offers to students regardless of A-level grades], ''Buckingham and Winslow Advertiser'', 19 August 2020
6. (13 April 2011). "Dr Anthony Seldon: Truly happy people are made, not born". The Independent.
7. "RSC Annual Report 2011-12". [[Royal Shakespeare Company]].
8. {{London Gazette. (14 June 2014)
9. (13 June 2014). "John Dunford and Anthony Seldon among educationalists recognised in honours list".
10. ''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007''
11. (2015). "How to go beyond happiness". The Daily Telegraph.
12. "Former pupils invited to help school celebrate centenary".
13. Seldon, Anthony. (1981). "The Churchill Government of 1951–55: a study of personalities and policy making". London School of Economics.
14. Hurst, Greg. (13 December 2013). "Gove's reform champion to take sabbatical". [[The Times]].
15. (22 April 2014). "Anthony Seldon to retire".
16. [http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/latest-news/appointment-of-sir-anthony-seldon-as-vice-chancellor/ Appointment of Sir Anthony Seldon as Vice-Chancellor], [[University of Buckingham]], 16 April 2015
17. (17 February 2023). "Epsom College: New head appointed after school gun deaths". BBC News.
18. "CCCU. Public Lecture: Sir Anthony Seldon".
19. Seldon, Anthony. (2010). "Churchill's Indian Summer: The Conservative Government, 1951–1955". Faber and Faber.
20. Seldon, Anthony. (1997). "Major: A Political Life". W&N.
21. (1999). "The Powers Behind the Prime Minister: The Hidden Influence of Number Ten". [[HarperCollins]].
22. Seldon, Anthony. (1999). "10 Downing Street: The Illustrated History". HarperCollins.
23. Seldon, Anthony. (2000). "The Foreign Office: The Illustrated History Of The Place And Its People". HarperCollins.
24. Seldon, Anthony. (2005). "Blair". Free Press.
25. Seldon, Anthony. (2008). "Blair Unbound". Pocket Books.
26. Seldon, Anthony. (2010). "Trust: How We Lost it and How to Get it Back". Biteback.
27. Anthony Seldon, Guy Lodge. (2011). "Brown at 10". Biteback Publishing.
28. (2013). "Public Schools and the Great War". Pen & Sword Military.
29. (21 April 2014). "The Architecture of Diplomacy: The British Ambassador's Residence in Washington". Flammarion.
30. Dennis Kavanagh, Anthony Seldon. (1989). "The Thatcher Effect: A Decade of Change". Oxford Paperbacks.
31. Dennis Kavanagh, Anthony Seldon. (1994). "The Major Effect". Macmillan.
32. Seldon, Anthony. (2001). "The Blair Effect". Little, Brown.
33. Seldon, Anthony. (2005). "The Blair Effect, 2001–5". Cambridge University Press.
34. Seldon, Anthony. (2007). "Blair's Britain, 1997–2007". Cambridge University Press.
35. (2015). "The Coalition Effect, 2010–2015". Cambridge University Press.
36. Seldon, Anthony. (2000). "Public & Private Education: The Divide Must End". The Social Market Foundation.
37. Seldon, Anthony. (2010). "An End To Factory Schools". Centre for Policy Studies.
38. Seldon, Anthony. "Why Schools, Why Universities?". Sir John Cass's Foundation.
39. Seldon, Anthony. (2002). "Brave New City: Brighton & Hove Past, Present, Future". Pomegranate Press.
40. "Anthony Seldon". Journalisted.
41. "Anthony Seldon". [[The Times]].
42. "Anthony Seldon". The Guardian.
43. Payne, Stewart. (18 April 2006). "School to give pupils lessons in happiness". The Daily Telegraph.
44. Seldon, Anthony. (15 May 2012). "We need to fix Britain's character flaws". The Daily Telegraph.
45. Paton, Graeme. (6 October 2008). "Oval Harkness table plan to stop pupils hiding in class". The Daily Telegraph.
46. (16 December 2008). "Wellington College to poll parents on plan to drop GCSEs in favour of Baccalaureate". The Daily Telegraph.
47. Seldon, Anthony. "Keynote speech: The Schools Network Annual Languages Conference, University of Warwick. 6 October 2011".
48. (2 June 2012). "Mandarin language centre opens at Wellington College". [[BBC News]].
49. (1 March 2013). "Wellington College tightens China link". [[The Times]].
50. (2023-02-17). "Epsom College: New head appointed after school gun deaths". BBC News.
51. [https://independentschoolmanagement.co.uk/people-moves/seldon-appointed-director-of-wellington-college-education/ Seldon appointed director of Wellington College Education], Independent School Management, 5th September 2024
52. "University of Buckingham". Website.
53. "University of Brighton Honorary Doctorates". Website.
54. "University of Richmond Honorary Degree Recipients". Website.
55. "College of Teachers". Website.
56. "The Iris Project". Website.
57. "DrugFAM". Website.
58. "Latest Press Releases | Royal Shakespeare Company".
59. "Journey's End (2017) – IMDb".
60. "In search of Tony Blair". [[Channel 4]].
61. "Trust Politics". BBC.
62. Butter, Susannah. (27 January 2017). "Sir Anthony Seldon on his late wife: 'She was spectacular, ferociously intelligent – I was in awe of her'".
63. Richardson, Hannah. (12 January 2022). "Hear about Walking the Western Front Way at University of Buckingham public lecture". The Bucks Herald.
64. Clarence-Smith, Louisa. (17 February 2023). "Epsom College appoints Sir Anthony Seldon as new headteacher after Emma Pattison tragedy". The Daily Telegraph.