Small Men on the Wrong Side of History

‘An entertaining, wide-ranging defence and explanation of the conservative way of seeing the world . . . suffused with generosity and wit’ Catholic Herald

Brought up by eccentric intellectuals, Ed West experienced what he believed was a fairly normal childhood of political pamphlets as bedtime reading, family holidays to East Germany and a father who was one political step away from advocating the return of serfdom. In his mid-twenties, West found himself embracing a mindset usually acquired alongside a realisation that all music post-1955 is garbage, agreeing with everything said in the Telegraph and all the other bad things people get in middle age. This is his journey to becoming a real-life Tory boy.


Forgoing the typically tedious and shouty tone of the Right, West provides that rare gem of a conservative book – one that people of any political alignment can read, if only to laugh at West’s gallows humour and dry wit. Crammed with self-deprecating anecdotes and enlightening political insights, Tory Boy discloses a life shaped by politics and the realisation that perhaps this obsession does more harm than good.

‘Anyone – liberal, conservative, whatever – would enjoy [this book]. It is full of the most fascinating facts, all mixed in with Ed’s inimitable displays of self-mockery’ Tom Holland

‘A self-deprecating and often hilarious memoir of a born conservative watching the world go wrong. Sprinkled with gallows humour, like a political version of Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch‘ The Critic