NEW RELEASE: Decking the Shuffle

A spiritual successor written with love by two brilliant academics, Decking the Shuffle takes the theme of Shuffling the Deck and turns it on its head, throws it up and down a few times, and pan-fries the result. 'Shuffling' not just Britain's Prime Ministers, but also the leaders of virtually all parties one can think of, the same assault on Great Man history made popular by Tindale and Black's 2014 work is carried off with aplomb by Steer and Baker.

As both a homage and spiritual successor to Tom Black and Jack Tindale’s Shuffling the Deck, Decking the Shuffle re-imagines the careers, fates, and legacies of Britain’s post-war party leaders by placing them in unfamiliar environments. Dividing the figures between them, the authors take a hatchet to conventional understandings of the country’s recent past. From Michael Foot as the face of socialist psychedelia to John Major’s laddish libertarian crusade, alongside appearances from more contemporary figures like Boris Johnson, Keir Starmer, and Jeremy Corbyn, Decking the Shuffle illustrates how circumstances guide history far more than so-called “Great Men” and that nothing was ever set in stone.

Decking the Shuffle is available now.