Further Reading
The most accurate and detailed description of the modern UK civil service is undoubtedly Edwards Page's and Bill Jenkins' Policy Bureacracy: Government with a Cast of Thousands which is based on numerous interviews with middle-ranking civil servants in a range of departments.
Focusing down a little, Professor Page's detailed description of the work of Bill Teams (originally published in Blackwells' Public Administration) provides a fascinating insight into the world inhabited by those civil servants entrusted with the task of developing primary legislation.
The ESRC's Transforming Government Series contains numerous books, written mainly for academic audiences, which describe the devlopment of Government in the UK and elsewhere. I particularly enjoyed reading David Richards' New Labour and the Civil Service.
Apart from my own How to be a Civil Servant, I know of only two books by a civil servant about the civil service (other than the memoirs of various ambassadors). The Mandarin's Tale by Roy Denman is the first of these - a fascinating history of the author's career from graduate entry into the Department of Trade and Industry in 1948 through to his transfer to to the European Commission in 1977 - and beyond. Although inevitably somewhat dated, it offers an interesting and occasionally disquieting glimpse into the usually hidden world of Whitehall. A definite "must read" for those interested in the development of the modern civil service.
The second and very entertaining memoir forms no more than half a chapter of a book by Stephen Burbridge, who claims to have been instrumental in bringing down the Callaghan government. Click here to read that extract and to find how to buy the whole book.
Other Sources of Information and Comment
There is an extensive reading list in the Accountability, Propriety and Audit section of this web site.
Politico's Online Bookshop has a huge range of books on Government and politics, including the following:-
- How to be a Minister by Gerald Kaufman is a remarkably perceptive guide to the processes of
government, as well as being very funny
- Whitehall by Peter Hennessy is the definitive guide to the machinery of British government
- The Powers behind the Prime Minister by Dennis Kavanagh & Anthony Seldon provides a first class history and analysis of the inhabitants of "Number 10":- the Prime Minister's Private Office, Policy Unit etc.
- The British Civil Service by Robert Pyper is a good introduction to the historical development, nature, organisation and role of the British civil service
- The Civil Service by Keith Dowding is still one of the best textbooks around on the civil service. It provides a
thorough analysis of the reforms of the 1980s and assesses those changes in terms of the public choice and public management theories that underpin them. The first part of the book concerns managerial issues, the second part
deals with the policy making process and the role of the civil service in the modern state.
- The Civil Service by Neil McNaughton (Hodder & Stoughton) is a very good A-level guide.
- Civil Service in Britain Today by Colin Pilkington is aimed at A Level and first year undergraduate students and asks vital questions concerning that degree of politicisation there might have been during the Next Steps and other reform programmes.
- Ministers & Mandarins by William Plowden examines the relationship between civil servants and Ministers and
MPs and looks at accountability issues and guidelines for civil servants' behaviour.
- The New Civil Service by Jonathan Tonge analyses the major progamme of reform of the late 1980s and 1990s
including the nature of the Next Steps programme and the character of the civil service under the Blair government.
- The Civil Service Yearbook is the standard guide to the work and structure of the Civil Service in the
United Kingdom. It contains extracts from the annual survey Civil Service Statistics, wider marketing, purchasing and market testing contacts, details of salary structures and comprehensive name and subject indexes.
- The Essential Civil Servant by Simon Petherick offers light relief in the form of collection of every quotation you can think of about civil servants and the civil service.
