“Tugendhat, a strong supporter of European unity, has written a fascinating and remarkably detached account of how Britain came to reverse that decision. His analysis of the political mistakes that made this outcome increasingly probable, beginning with the government’s failure at the outset to be frank about the implications of membership, go to the heart of the matter.”
— Norman Lamont, Member of House of Lords of the United Kingdom
"The switch of Conservative Party opinion on Europe was of profound and enduring significance to the UK and the EU. At the heart of this absorbing narrative of how and why it happened is a superb insider’s account of a critical moment in the story and one of the great might-have-beens of British history if Margaret Thatcher had been treated differently by the big figures in Europe after 1979."
— Peter Hennessy, author of Winds of Change: Britain in the Early Sixties
"Britain has 'left' and re-joined Europe a dozen times over the past two thousand years. The latest round has been among the bitterest. Tugendhat's survey is a masterful injection of sanity into this timeless argument."
— Simon Jenkins, author of Europe’s 100 Best Cathedrals
“Tugendhat’s book is not long... and he has clearly set out to appeal to the general reader, those interested in politics rather than the political experts. In this I think he has succeeded well, with both pace and tone just right; the book is clearly authoritative but avoids being over-detailed, and in particular it avoids the trap so many politicians fall into of describing the political to and fro in such detail that only other politicians would be interested in it.”
— Laburnum Consulting