Gavin Barwell is a British politician who was appointed Chief of Staff to then Prime Minister Theresa May shortly after losing his seat as Member of Parliament for Croydon Central， in 2017。 Before losing his seat he’d held the role of Minister of State for Housing and Planning。 In this book he focuses on his time working for May and primarily on her attempts to agree a Brexit deal with the European Union that she then hoped to get accepted by the British Parliament。 I was aware of Barwell althou Gavin Barwell is a British politician who was appointed Chief of Staff to then Prime Minister Theresa May shortly after losing his seat as Member of Parliament for Croydon Central， in 2017。 Before losing his seat he’d held the role of Minister of State for Housing and Planning。 In this book he focuses on his time working for May and primarily on her attempts to agree a Brexit deal with the European Union that she then hoped to get accepted by the British Parliament。 I was aware of Barwell although in his role as CoS he was very much a background figure during May’s reign – political advisers being banned from giving interviews by their Code of Conduct。 Here he initially provides quite a bit of detail about how the parliamentary machine works - somewhat interesting but bone dry – before launching into accounts of the major issues his boss had to address during her time as PM。 At the top of the list was her desire （need） to ‘deliver’ Brexit。 Secondary issues， but nonetheless major challenges in their own right， were: Grenfell， MeToo and Windrush and Northern Ireland。 Barnwell， who narrates the audio version I listened to himself， comes across as driven， highly intelligent and loyal。 He also had a few good stories to tell， some light-hearted in-fill before the serious business to come。 His accounts of how the secondary issues were addressed felt a bit too procedural for my personal taste， with lots of political language and bullet pointed actions。 I found the content， though， very interesting and， at times， highly illuminating。 But the real meat in the pie is his lengthy description of the Brexit negotiations and the wrangling with fellow politicians （in his own party as much as the opposition） and with officials from the EU。Although anyone who owned a television or a phone through that period couldn’t help but find much of the detail familiar， it was the hidden haggling and arguing that I found particularly fascinating。 This element certainly put a new slant on some of the key moments in that period and showed up just how self-serving so many politicians are – Boris， in particular， comes across very badly in this regard （no real surprise there）。 Another feeling I had reinforced is that of how manipulative politicians can be – again， not a surprise but it didn’t feel good to be reminded of the fact。 There were also lies， deceit and backstabbing aplenty – and that was just amongst May's own team！Some of the closing thoughts in the book relate to what might have happened with regard to Brexit if a few things had gone slightly differently。 This is sobering stuff and demonstrated to me how small acts can have such significant consequences。 Overall I found this to be an interesting account of a key period of political history for the UK。 Unedifying as it sometimes is it’s how politics works， how big decisions are reached and how key impacts on all of us come about。My thanks to W。F。 Howes Ltd and NetGalley for providing a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review。 。。。more