The prominent educationalist and biographer is growing weary of his preoccupation with everyday anxieties and fears. What matters is to keep moving, away from the darkness and towards the light

There’s an arresting moment in Sir Anthony Seldon’s new book when he tells his wife Sarah (his first wife, Joanna, died in 2016; he married Sarah in 2022) that he’s organising an arts festival in the village of Saint-Jean-de-Côle in Périgord Vert where they have a home. Sarah, longing for a bit of summer “downtime” with her newish husband, is aghast: “Why would you want to do that? You’ve been working non-stop for months!” It seems astonishing that Seldon hadn’t sought her blessing before launching into this project. You might ­wonder: is he essentially uncaring?

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