Philip Stephens

Welcome to the website of Philip Stephens,

I am a writer and historian, the author most recently of two widely acclaimed books charting the twists and turns in Britain's place in the world as a post-imperial power.

These Divided Isles: Britain and Ireland, Past and Future (Faber & Faber 2025) charts the nation's tumultous relationship with its nearest neighbour and former colony since Irish independence, and looks ahead to the prospects of a united Ireland.

Britain Alone: The Path from Suez to Brexit (Faber & Faber 2021) is an account of Britain's post-imperial struggle to find its international role.

I am a Contributing Editor at the Financial Times, where formerly I wrote a weekly column about political and international affairs and was Director of the Editorial Board. I also write a Substack column, Inside-Out.

LATEST BOOK

These Divided Isles

Britain and Ireland, Past and Future

"Stephens' account of the jagged divisions between Britain and Ireland over the last century and the repeated attempts to heal them is masterful and beautifully written. It is interlaced with his own experiences from his mother's home in Killtimagh in County Mayo and as the leading political commentator in London for two decades. Required reading for anyone interested in how the Troubles ended and what the final answer to the Irish question might be."

Jonathan Powell

Image of a book cover for the book entitled These Divided Isles

"One of the most astute and informed modern commentators on British politics and its foreign policy . . . Stephens has written a profound, authoritative and readable account of the troubled relations between Britain and Ireland"

Daithí Ó Ceallaigh

Britain Alone

The Path from Suez to Brexit

“Admirably lucid and measured, as well as studded with sharp pen portraits of the key players, Britain Alone gives us the fullest long-run political and diplomatic narrative yet of Britain’s fateful, tragi-comic road to Brexit.”

DAVID KYNASTON

'Compelling, informative and readable . . . offers much-needed substance.'

Financial Times

“Philip Stephens has produced that rare thing - an instant classic. Britain Alone is the codebook we need to unravel the six and a half decades between Suez and Brexit, and Stephens is a master of historical codebreaking.”

PETER HENNESSY

"What could have been a meandering history becomes, in Stephens’s hands, a gripping saga of blunders, triumphs and missed opportunities."

Prospect

Writings