Book excerpt: Education Policy Unravelled examines the nature of contemporary education policy, its purposes and political formation. It charts the continuity of policy development along neo-liberal lines, taking an historical perspective and moving from New Labour to the emerging position of the Coalition government. Contrary to popular belief about recent radical change in education policy, the author team draws attention to the fact that there have been strong similarities and nuanced disagreements between successive modern governments. Written in an accessible style, the book contains a number of activities and pedagogical features designed to appeal to students, to inform thinking and understanding around key policy issues. This is an invaluable guide for engaging with education policy as it uses a variety of key elements of policy theory in order to support students through some of the complexities involved in contemporary policy analysis and critique.