What do you think?
Rate this book
No Way Out: Brexit: From the Backstop to Boris - The Sunday Times Bestseller, Essential Reading for the 2024 General Election
The unmissable next instalment of Tim Shipman’s #1 bestselling Brexit quartet. To follow his bestselling books All Out War and Fall Out, this book launches off from 2017 to offer an unflinching, unfiltered account of some of the most turbulent years of British politics.
In the company of all the key players and with countless never-before-revealed insights, No Way Out traces the unprecedented disasters and triumphs of Theresa May’s tenure. Spun with characteristic wit and wisdom, Shipman tells the story of May’s three great negotiations – first, with her cabinet, then with the EU and finally with parliament – and chronicles her fall in thrilling detail.
This is the ultimate insider narrative to three of the most turbulent and impactful years of government, revealing the strategies, gambles, mistakes, mindsets and scandals that have shaped and shaken Britain.
As always, political insider and chief political commentator for the Sunday Times Tim Shipman unleashes a slew of insight – and gossip – to reveal the democratic drama as it really happened.
In the company of all the key players and with countless never-before-revealed insights, No Way Out traces the unprecedented disasters and triumphs of Theresa May’s tenure. Spun with characteristic wit and wisdom, Shipman tells the story of May’s three great negotiations – first, with her cabinet, then with the EU and finally with parliament – and chronicles her fall in thrilling detail.
This is the ultimate insider narrative to three of the most turbulent and impactful years of government, revealing the strategies, gambles, mistakes, mindsets and scandals that have shaped and shaken Britain.
As always, political insider and chief political commentator for the Sunday Times Tim Shipman unleashes a slew of insight – and gossip – to reveal the democratic drama as it really happened.
711 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 25, 2024
About the author
Tim Shipman
8 books116 followersTim Shipman has been a national newspaper journalist for sixteen years and has a wealth of experience reporting on British and American politics and international relations.
Currently the Political Editor of the Sunday Times, Tim has covered four British General Elections and three American elections from the US. Well known in the Westminster political mix, he is a trusted confidant of politicians from all political parties and has a growing following as a witty observer of the political scene @ShippersUnbound.
Currently the Political Editor of the Sunday Times, Tim has covered four British General Elections and three American elections from the US. Well known in the Westminster political mix, he is a trusted confidant of politicians from all political parties and has a growing following as a witty observer of the political scene @ShippersUnbound.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 5, 2024
Maybe it shouldn’t surprise me that half a million words on months of esoteric, technocratic grind is a long, dull slog to read. Shippers aims for Caro (whose LBJ books he predictably calls ‘magisterial’, a descriptor he uses again just a few paragraphs later) but the tone here is much more Westminster gossip than a genuine study of power.
I guess the biggest surprise is that despite the prolixity of the text, it did little to illuminate. We can spend pages on the minutiae of an irrelevant back room conversation, and yet skip over apparently decisive events without actually explaining what happened.
For example, we are told that Hunt’s leadership campaign was sunk by an intervention on fox hunting:
> “Within minutes triumph turned to disaster. Buried in the story were comments Hunt had made about fox hunting, in a separate podcast interview with the Telegraph’s Chris Hope. The wily veteran asked whether he would support a free vote on overturning the ban on fox hunting and Hunt walked into the trap. Tory MP WhatsApp groups went into meltdown and every other paper picked up on fox hunting, ignoring the carefully planned story the campaign wanted. It was an unforced error, and one which derailed Hunt’s big interview on the Today programme the next morning, where he had to spend valuable time dealing with hunting. ‘That was a genuine momentum killer,’ an aide recalled. ‘It deflated everyone. We never really recovered, honestly.’”
That's it. The entire bit. I have no idea what Hunt said on fox hunting, even whether he supported a free vote or not. I have no idea why it was so catastrophic, or any real evidence that it was.
The book would benefit from losing at least a quarter of the chaff.
The author makes the same point about the Bismarck quote that forms his epigraph twice. He decries May's unwillingness to 'kick the table over' on at least a dozen occasions.
And it's hard to believe this paragraph made it past a copy editor:
> “They would have been better to oust May in July 2018, rather than wait a year. Instead, the hardliners maintained their polite loyalty to the prime minister until, from their point of view, it was far too late. Had Davis, Johnson and Gove moved against her in December 2017 or earlier in May or June 2018 when it was beginning to become clear that May was on a very different page to them, things might have turned out differently. Even when Davis and Johnson did resign in July 2018, neither made any concerted effort to remove the prime minister. Both could have done so, with Philip Hammond’s assistance, after the general election.”
The profusion of dates is so confusing as to stop the reader in their tracks. "December 2017 or earlier in May or June 2018"?
Anyway, it is fundamentally a very boring book about a very boring Prime Minister engaged in sound and fury signifying, largely, nothing.
I guess the biggest surprise is that despite the prolixity of the text, it did little to illuminate. We can spend pages on the minutiae of an irrelevant back room conversation, and yet skip over apparently decisive events without actually explaining what happened.
For example, we are told that Hunt’s leadership campaign was sunk by an intervention on fox hunting:
> “Within minutes triumph turned to disaster. Buried in the story were comments Hunt had made about fox hunting, in a separate podcast interview with the Telegraph’s Chris Hope. The wily veteran asked whether he would support a free vote on overturning the ban on fox hunting and Hunt walked into the trap. Tory MP WhatsApp groups went into meltdown and every other paper picked up on fox hunting, ignoring the carefully planned story the campaign wanted. It was an unforced error, and one which derailed Hunt’s big interview on the Today programme the next morning, where he had to spend valuable time dealing with hunting. ‘That was a genuine momentum killer,’ an aide recalled. ‘It deflated everyone. We never really recovered, honestly.’”
That's it. The entire bit. I have no idea what Hunt said on fox hunting, even whether he supported a free vote or not. I have no idea why it was so catastrophic, or any real evidence that it was.
The book would benefit from losing at least a quarter of the chaff.
The author makes the same point about the Bismarck quote that forms his epigraph twice. He decries May's unwillingness to 'kick the table over' on at least a dozen occasions.
And it's hard to believe this paragraph made it past a copy editor:
> “They would have been better to oust May in July 2018, rather than wait a year. Instead, the hardliners maintained their polite loyalty to the prime minister until, from their point of view, it was far too late. Had Davis, Johnson and Gove moved against her in December 2017 or earlier in May or June 2018 when it was beginning to become clear that May was on a very different page to them, things might have turned out differently. Even when Davis and Johnson did resign in July 2018, neither made any concerted effort to remove the prime minister. Both could have done so, with Philip Hammond’s assistance, after the general election.”
The profusion of dates is so confusing as to stop the reader in their tracks. "December 2017 or earlier in May or June 2018"?
Anyway, it is fundamentally a very boring book about a very boring Prime Minister engaged in sound and fury signifying, largely, nothing.
May 7, 2024
I skimmed this doorstep-sized book rather than read it properly. As with the two previous books in the series, this is brilliantly sourced, clearly explained and particularly good on the question of who influences events and how. I didn’t enjoy this as much as the previous two, but I think that is because the subject-matter (the failed EU negotiations in 2017-19) is drier and less dramatic than what went before and what came after. I’m looking forward to the final volume.
May 30, 2024
As other reviews have said it’s different to Shipman’s other books on the post-2015 period: much more granular and focussed on the minutiae of the Brexit negotiations.
It is very difficult to see why - reading this you remember just how protracted and how painfully boring most of this period was, and why people were so desperate to have it end by almost any means necessary. It’s definitely well-sourced, but basically impossible to tell in a way that is engaging which means you end up skimming it more than you intended.
It is very difficult to see why - reading this you remember just how protracted and how painfully boring most of this period was, and why people were so desperate to have it end by almost any means necessary. It’s definitely well-sourced, but basically impossible to tell in a way that is engaging which means you end up skimming it more than you intended.
May 1, 2024
More dry than previous books due to source material, impressive detail and acute analysis.
October 5, 2023
We’ve been promised this book for several years now and it still hasn’t appeared, which is s shame because the author writes brilliantly about political events. He seems to have access, not only to the politicians, but also their staff, so gets the real story (or as close as you’re going to get). With everything that’s happened to the shower of sh*ts that make up our government, he’s surely got material for many books. The rise and fall of Boris, Barnard Castle, parties, alleged Labour antisemitism, idiots and morons of the ERG, alleged tory Russian links, covid fast lane funding… how much manure can you fit in one book?
It was originally promised for around 2021. Then 2022. Now mid 2024. Hence the one star. Annoyance at having to wait years!
It was originally promised for around 2021. Then 2022. Now mid 2024. Hence the one star. Annoyance at having to wait years!
May 27, 2024
The perpetual crises that have beleaguered the British government since Theresa May's electoral debacle in 2017 have ignited an extraordinary surge of personal interest in the daily machinations of Westminster. I recall with vivid clarity the experience of following, from afar, through twitter, news channels, and other media, the tragic drama that unfurled before our eyes.
"No Way Out" recounts the narrative of how this drama transpired behind the cameras. The Brexit negotiations, the endeavors to devise a solution that could appease all factions within Parliament, and the internecine conflicts of the Conservative Party serve as the book's gravitational centers.
Though the subject matter may be intricate, replete with various testimonies and tales from numerous statesmen, the prose is engaging, and one could be excused for believing oneself immersed in another chapter of "House of Cards" (whose original narrative, it should be noted, is also British and set within the corridors of Westminster).
However, let not appearances deceive you. While the book explores the myriad webs of interpersonal and governmental strife that constitute Brexit, the most formidable political crisis to beset Britain since the Second World War, the principal theme of this work, as with its two antecedent volumes, is the titanic struggle for a vision of the United Kingdom and its role in the world among the British political elite.
"No Way Out" recounts the narrative of how this drama transpired behind the cameras. The Brexit negotiations, the endeavors to devise a solution that could appease all factions within Parliament, and the internecine conflicts of the Conservative Party serve as the book's gravitational centers.
Though the subject matter may be intricate, replete with various testimonies and tales from numerous statesmen, the prose is engaging, and one could be excused for believing oneself immersed in another chapter of "House of Cards" (whose original narrative, it should be noted, is also British and set within the corridors of Westminster).
However, let not appearances deceive you. While the book explores the myriad webs of interpersonal and governmental strife that constitute Brexit, the most formidable political crisis to beset Britain since the Second World War, the principal theme of this work, as with its two antecedent volumes, is the titanic struggle for a vision of the United Kingdom and its role in the world among the British political elite.
April 30, 2024
No Way Out is a real treasure trove for readers like me who are mesmerised by the twists and turns of UK politics. TLDR: this book isn't just for the political elite—it's for anyone interested in politics and history.
With nearly 670 pages, Shipman uses his extensive experience as a political journalist to weave an engaging narrative that captures the intense political manoeuvres and backstabbing inside Westminster. The book offers a deep dive into the detailed events and personal dynamics that shaped this pivotal period in UK history.
This volume serves as both a historical record and a compelling analysis of political strategy, making it indispensable for those seeking a comprehensive understanding of the Brexit shenanigans that eventually paved the way for Boris Johnson.
For me, No Way Out stands out for its unique blend of in-depth research and Shipman's ability to make complex political processes accessible and engaging to all. Shipman must have more sources than Bernstein and Woodward combined because, with each paragraph, he puts the reader in the room, as if we are eavesdropping on conversations we aren't meant to hear.
No political bookshelf is complete without No Way Out (and the two volumes before it).
With nearly 670 pages, Shipman uses his extensive experience as a political journalist to weave an engaging narrative that captures the intense political manoeuvres and backstabbing inside Westminster. The book offers a deep dive into the detailed events and personal dynamics that shaped this pivotal period in UK history.
This volume serves as both a historical record and a compelling analysis of political strategy, making it indispensable for those seeking a comprehensive understanding of the Brexit shenanigans that eventually paved the way for Boris Johnson.
For me, No Way Out stands out for its unique blend of in-depth research and Shipman's ability to make complex political processes accessible and engaging to all. Shipman must have more sources than Bernstein and Woodward combined because, with each paragraph, he puts the reader in the room, as if we are eavesdropping on conversations we aren't meant to hear.
No political bookshelf is complete without No Way Out (and the two volumes before it).
May 23, 2024
Do we get the politicians we deserve?
This extremely lengthy account of Theresa May’s efforts to secure Brexit leaves the reader with a clear sense that our politicians think first of themselves, secondly of their Party and a distant third the best interests of the country. And the other main thing I learnt was there are an awful lot of WhatsApp groups in UK politics.
The author begins the book with a quote from Bismarck about politics being the art of the attainable - next best. We then see lots of folk shooting themselves in the foot in uncoordinated attempts to achieve a whole lot worse.
It was bad enough living through all this never mind reading it all over again. I’ll still buy volume 4 though
This extremely lengthy account of Theresa May’s efforts to secure Brexit leaves the reader with a clear sense that our politicians think first of themselves, secondly of their Party and a distant third the best interests of the country. And the other main thing I learnt was there are an awful lot of WhatsApp groups in UK politics.
The author begins the book with a quote from Bismarck about politics being the art of the attainable - next best. We then see lots of folk shooting themselves in the foot in uncoordinated attempts to achieve a whole lot worse.
It was bad enough living through all this never mind reading it all over again. I’ll still buy volume 4 though
June 6, 2024
Worth the wait? Well that was always a very tough ask given how long the wait has been, but it was enjoyable. Enough time has passed now to allow for a bit more reflection on the decisions made by the May government, as well as its strengths and weaknesses to be put in context by what's followed since. Largely a nostalgic(??) look back at the Brexit Wars, but with enough additional colour to make it feel like it was worth reading.
June 3, 2024
Shipman strikes again. Absolutely brilliant book, so well-written and researched and a real eye opener into the schemings and backstabbings that now go on within our own Parliament. I hope all MPs read this, and realise what a cock up they made by being self-serving, rather than listening to their own people.
May 31, 2024
Another great read about the Brexit years. Probably the most dispiriting period of that part of recent UK political history but Shipman manages again to bring together Westminster gossip and technical detail to form a compelling and interesting book.
June 4, 2024
First third a real slog, as got bogged down in finer details about Brexit negotiations and various clauses in contracts that were too convoluted to follow. Character studies were much more illuminating
May 6, 2024
The author's writing and conclusions perfectly mirror Brexit itself. A complete sh*tshow.
Not to authors: Name dropping isn't enough
Not to authors: Name dropping isn't enough
May 9, 2024
Astonishingly gripping and informative; a superbly well-told account of an insane period of British politics, with Shipman’s ubiquitous insight, turn of phrase, and enticing prose. Roll on book 4!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews