Heywood Quarterly contributors share their recommendations for 2026
With 2025 coming to a close, we asked former contributors and members of our team to reflect on books (recently published and not-so-recently published) that they have found entertaining or instructive over the last 12 months.
Ranging from a history of the Civil Service to ideas that can change the way we work, we hope there’s something in this eclectic list that piques your interest and finds its way onto your reading list for 2026.
Political Animals by Peter Cardwell
This is a joyous romp, or maybe patter of paws and hooves, through the corridors of power. Animals are the silent observers of our political leaders, but have often gained substantial followers in their own right and enjoyed far better approval ratings. I am particularly fond of this book because it tells the story of Evie and Ossie at the Cabinet Office, two cats that Jeremy really didn’t like; he was never a pet lover, but generally tolerated them unless they shed hair on his chair or left deposits on the stairs. On one memorable occasion, when he almost stepped in some of the latter, he issued the pair with a “final warning”.
Find Political Animals at Biteback Publishing
Recommended by Suzanne Heywood, Chair of the Heywood Foundation and COO of Exor.
This is for Everyone by Tim Berners-Lee
Tim is the modest inventor of something that has changed all of our lives – the World Wide Web. What is more, he invented it and gave it away for free (hence the title of the book). The book echoes his personality, telling his extraordinary story in an understated way, starting with the creation of the first website in 1991 (which still exists today). I was amused to find that Tim went to a school I have often passed by in South London, already thinking big thoughts for the future. Later on, as I recounted in my biography about Jeremy, he stepped into government to try to help transform public services. Well worth reading.
Find This is for Everyone at Pan Macmillan
Recommended by Suzanne Heywood, Chair of the Heywood Foundation and COO of Exor.
Who is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service by Michael Lewis
Government is fascinating. That statement may well be a minority opinion, but by telling the stories of people who do the work of government, this book will convince you. You will meet the manager who made the National Cemetery Administration, which is responsible for burying military personnel and maintaining their places of rest, the best-run public or private organisation in the United States. Or the employee of the Internal Revenue Service, who is so effective at cracking cyber crime that his work has protected society from child abuse, terrorist attacks and cyber fraud (saving over $12 billion for victims of crime and the taxpayer), and who could earn a fortune outside government were he not to value more the impact he makes in his job. And the head of innovation at the National Archives, deeply committed to assuring equal access to the information any citizen might want or need.
This book tells the story of why good government matters through stories of the people who make it good – civil and public servants in the US federal government, who do extraordinary work without profile or praise, motivated by their own deep values of making a difference. Importantly, it is incredibly readable, only 243 pages long and driven by strong story telling as you would expect from Michael Lewis and the other writers he has recruited. The book is a series of essays, first published in the Washington Post. When I had finished it, I hankered for a UK version to tell the story of what the best of government and public service looks like, and why it must be supported to be its best.
Find Who is Government? at Penguin Books
Recommended by Tamara Finkelstein, former Permanent Secretary of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Having completed 35 years in the Civil Service, Tamara will be starting as Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the new year.
How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work: Seven Languages for Transformation by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey
I was given this as a leaving gift from a brilliant manager a few years ago and I keep coming back to it. It talks about why change is so hard (both personal and at work) and how our intentions are often overwhelmed by silent commitments and assumptions. I may be committed to going running in the new year, but if I’m being honest, I’m also committed to protecting relaxation time, and I assume that going running takes time away from being “productive”. This book walks you through the steps to find what’s blocking change.
Find How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work at Waterstones
Recommended by James Ancell, Head of Futures and Foresight, Cabinet Office.
Money: A Story of Humanity by David McWilliams
One of my favourite books this year has been Money: A Story of Humanity by David McWilliams. There are so many books about the history of money, and a lot of them are great including Felix Martin’s Money: The Unauthorised Biography, but this one is up there with the best. I love the ambition of McWilliams’ historical scope, tracing the origins of money from the use of notches on bones during the Stone Age, to the development of cryptocurrencies and digital assets in the modern day. But most of all I love the way McWilliams places money at the centre of human social development: so that in his thesis money makes society, as much as societies make money.
Find Money: A Story of Humanity at Simon and Schuster
Recommended by Mario Pisani, Deputy Director in the Financial Stability Group at HM Treasury, and a Trustee of the Royal Mint Museum.
No Tradesmen and No Women: The Origins of the British Civil Service by Michael Coolican
We like to think the seminal Northcote-Trevelyan report paved the way for the values underpinning today’s Civil Service. And in many ways it did, particularly its forthright recommendation for recruitment based on merit rather than patronage.
Yet I hadn’t fully appreciated the real genesis, context and consequences of the report until reading Michael Coolican’s No Tradesmen and No Women earlier this year. With deep research, Coolican provides rich insight on the behind-the-scenes story of both the report and subsequent reforms – the good, the bad and the ugly.
I was fascinated by how many modern debates – generalists vs. specialists, policy vs. delivery, the centre vs. departments – were all playing out 175 years ago. While history may not repeat itself, it does rhyme.
Find No Tradesmen and No Women at Biteback Publishing
Recommended by Peter McDonald, Director of Transport and Digital Connectivity in the Welsh Government and a member of the Editorial Board of the Heywood Quarterly.
Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress – and How to Bring It Back by Marc Dunkleman
There have been several fascinating books recently exploring the question why – at least in some US states – it has become harder to get things done and thus to improve living standards and the quality of life. One of these is Abundance – How We Build a Better Future by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson.
Another is Why Nothing Works by Marc Dunkelman. Dunkelman highlights the great historic achievements of the United States – building the world’s greatest rail network, a vast electrical grid, interstate highways, the Tennessee Valley Authority and so much more.
Yet over the past 50 years, building almost anything has become more difficult – with serious consequences for housing affordability and much else. The desire to hold government accountable and address the wider potential costs of economic development means increasing constraints have been imposed, and individuals and communities have been increasingly empowered to veto or block change that would deliver progress.
Dunkelman argues for a better balance between getting things done and blocking infrastructure, housing or other development. Of course wider costs need to be addressed, but not at the expense of any progress at all. Encouragingly there are US states like Texas which seem able to balance, for example, high rates of economic growth with housing affordability. Dunkelman’s book resonated strongly for me with similar issues we’re grappling with in the UK and I hugely commend it.
Find Why Nothing Works on Amazon
Recommended by Stephen Aldridge, Director, Analysis and Data at the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government.
Gradual Disempowerment: Systemic Existential Risks from Incremental AI Development by J. Kulveit et al
This paper, which came out at the start of the year, provoked quite a lot of reflection on my part and on the part of others (and quite a dark shadow). It breaks from the ‘doomster’ trope that AI will turn the planet into paperclips to explore more subtle – but more plausible and concerning – scenarios. It seeks to think through the wider implications of a world where AI and robotics gradually expand comparative advantage over humans. For example, even the most dictatorial states have been constrained by the ability of people to withdraw their labour, but this might not apply in a relatively near future.
It’s basically tech-savvy geeks discovering political economy, but nonetheless a thoughtful and timely provocation for us all. My own view is that societies have the ability to shape the arc of remarkable technology that is currently evolving, but we’re not doing a good enough job on reflecting on those choices. This paper is a good place to start.
Find Gradual Disempowerment on arXiv
Recommended by David Halpern, Director of the Downing Battcock Institute, Cambridge, and President Emeritus of the Behavioural Insights Team.
How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
Whilst largely focusing on the US and offering further examples from Latin America and Europe, How Democracies Die acts as a warning against naively assuming that “demagogues are ‘all talk'”. It provides a deep-dive into the many symptoms of a democracy at risk of death, calling on an increasingly polarised society, denouncement of the media and evasion of the checks and balances of the judiciary and legislature as key indicators. Democracies rarely collapse overnight; instead, they erode gradually when leaders exploit legal loopholes and disregard democratic conventions. Despite first publication in 2018, Levitsky and Ziblatt provide a topical and engaging introduction for those interested in better understanding the tumultuous global political landscape today. It’s a timely read for those who believe democracy is not self-sustaining but must be actively defended.
Find How Democracies Die at Penguin
Recommended by Sasha Howells, a second-year Government Policy Fast Streamer at the Ministry of Justice and Design and Production Lead at Heywood Quarterly.
