The Blurb On The Back:

In politics there are no prizes for second place.

Packed with advice and practical examples, this guide reveals the insider secrets and skills you need to make sure you’re a winner on election day. In easily digestible bite-sized chapters, seasoned campaign professionals Mark Pack and Edward Maxfield share successful tactics from around the globe to help steer you on the course to power.

Learn to hate trees, always have more people than chairs and never, ever, forget the law of the left nostril – head those lessons and win that election.

You can order 101 WAYS TO WIN AN ELECTION by Mark Pack and Edward Maxfield from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Waterstone’s or Bookshop.org UK.  I earn commission on any purchases made through these links.

The Review (Cut For Spoilers):

Mark Pack ran the Liberal Democrats’ internet campaigns in the 2001 and 2005 general elections and Edward Maxfield has worked on political campaigns for over 30 years (both local and national) and in this interesting and informative book, they set out 101 practical tips in 101 short chapters for running an election campaign, divided into 5 sections: message; team; resources; communicating the message and leadership.

Some of what Pack and Maxfield describe is good common sense but if you’re interesting in running a political campaign, there are also a lot of good practical tips (from making sure that if you’re holding a public meeting then have more people than chairs to make it look packed and checking to make sure that photos don’t focus on a candidate’s nostril). They illustrate their points with personal experience and examples drawn from more famous campaigns (including US presidential elections, and UK and Australian elections) and although it’s very western centric and the personal experiences are based on Liberal Democrat campaigns rather than those of other parties, there’s still a lot that’s of use and interest. The book was published in 2012 but there’s a 2016 re-issue that I’d be interested in checking out.