Andrew Rawnsely is associate editor and chief political commentator on The Observer Sunday Newspaper, so he has talked to most of the main characters in British Politics over the last decade or so. His book, quite simply, is a masterpiece, a gripping read, a veritable feast – as Andrew  Gimson of The Daily Telegraph puts it – of “high politics and low behaviour”.

There is no doubt in my mind that this is political journalism of the highest order. Rawnsley writes extremely well and has excellent sources. Peter Oborne, himself no slouch when it comes to exposing the truth of the murky world of politics, rates The End of the Party very highly, calling it “a sheer delight” and comparing it with the work of Woodward and Bernstein of Watergate fame.

It is certainly compelling stuff, full of anecedotes that are both true and colourful. On almost every page one comes across information not previously available, or a new insight, or a telling reflection on a theme. It is the best account yet of, amongst other things, the Blair-Brown feud that so terribly crippled the New Labour Government from the very start. This is Downing Street – numbers 10 and 11 – laid bare, and while it is hugely entertaining, even riveting stuff, it is not a pretty sight.

What Rawnsely does is confirm what many people suspected was the truth of things all along – this is the lowdown on the TB-GB wrangles, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Blair-Bush ‘special relationship’; Gordon Brown’s disastrous Premiership and why it was always almost certain to fail. For a political documentary, this is a real page-turner.

The Rev’d David Boulton is Diocesan Curate and Webmaster for the Free Church of England, a Visiting Preacher for The Leprosy Mission, England & Wales and also for Open Doors.