One Minute to Ten review – a guessing game

Dan Hodges tries to get inside the minds of Cameron, Miliband and Clegg on 7 May 2015… with perplexing results

Political commentator Dan Hodges’s first book is a perplexing one. Rather than produce a closely researched biographical and historical account of the last stages of the 2015 election, he has instead opted for psychological portraits of Cameron, Miliband and Clegg, using fictional techniques as he attempts to analyse their states of mind before the results of the notorious 10pm exit poll. If Hodges is basing these analyses on hitherto unknown research, then there are some fascinating revelations; if, however, they are mainly or entirely invented, then the book is of less use. The staccato prose style is an irritation, as is the occasional refusal to illuminate from whose perspective Hodges is describing matters. Yet even the authorial affectations cannot destroy the narrative’s intrinsic interest, and as it heads to its tragic or triumphant conclusion (depending on inclination), Hodges has to be given credit for attempting something new, even if it seems unlikely to become a widely used approach.

One Minute to Ten is published by Michael Joseph (£16.99). Click here to buy it for £12.99

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