Fascinating look at the man who loves to spin.

Byline: By Anthony Looch

Blair by Anthony Seldon (Free Press, pounds 20)

What history will make of Tony Blair is an open question but possibly the verdict will be kinder than seems likely at the moment.

His errors of judgment have been spectacular but so have his successes.

This 755-page unauthorised biography by Anthony Seldon is said to be based partly on 600 mainly anonymous interviews with people who have known and worked with Blair.

It is a revelatory and fascinating book. Although much of the material will be familiar to the reader, it welds the various episodes into a coherent whole and a great deal of the content is new.

To get anywhere in politics one has to be ruthless and in that area Blair has what it takes, but he comes across as a likeable man, devoted to his family, and with genuine liberal-Christian beliefs.

Although the groundwork was laid for him by Neil Kinnock, Blair's greatest achievement was to drag a reluctant Labour Party into the modern world, making it electable after years in the wilderness, and achieving stunning victories at the polls in 1997 and 2001.

His weaknesses include an excessive need to be liked; a naive enthusiasm for ill-advised trendy projects such as the Dome; and too great a faith in the efficacy of slick presentation and the views of focus groups.

Iraq may still prove to be his biggest mistake and his ultimate undoing.

The book paints a formidable picture of Chancellor Gordon Brown, smouldering with resentment and ready to erupt like Vesuvius because he believes Blair has cheated him out of the Prime Minister's job.

It is a mystery why anyone would be so keen to have it, when one reads of the viciousness, intrigue, and backstabbing ( not to mention the workload, loss of privacy and perpetual security threat ( which the holder of that office has to endure.