Nicholas Timmins is a senior fellow at the Institute for Government and the King’s Fund. Between 1996 and 2011 he was public policy editor at the Financial Times. He is the author of the multi-award winning The Five Giants: A Biography of the Welfare State (William Collins), a narrative history that in the current edition takes it from Beveridge up to 2017. He has been a visiting professor at the London School of Economics in social policy and at King’s College London in public management. He has a DLitt from the University of Hull and is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.