Title: A century of premiers : Salisbury to Blair /
Authors: Leonard, R. L.
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan,
Year: 2005
Subjects: Prime ministers Great Britain Biography.; BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Historical.; HISTORY.; Politics and government; Prime ministers; Great Britain Politics and government Biography.
Abstract: During the course of the Twentieth Century, nineteen men and one woman - from Robert Cecil, Third Marquis of Salisbury to Tony Blair - have occupied the post of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. In a series of biographical essays, Dick Leonard, a leading political journalist and former MP, recounts the circumstances that took them to the top of "the greasy pole", probes their personal and political strengths and weaknesses, assesses their performance in the top office and asks what lasting influence they have had. The author also recounts fascinating and little-known facts about the private lives of each of the Prime Ministers, for example which two premiers, one Tory, one Labour, were taught by the same governess as a child? Who was thrashed at his public school for writing pornography and later donated one-fifth of his fortune to the nation? Who was awarded a fourth class degree at Oxford and went on to father eight children? Who was the only Prime Minister to be born overseas? Who was described by his son as "probably the greatest natural Don Juan in the history of British politics"?
Contents: Introduction -- Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquis of Salisbury -- The Man Who Stayed Too Long -- Arthur James Balfour -- Bob's Your Uncle -- Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman -- "A Good, Honest Scotchman" -- Herbert Henry Asquith -- Not Quite in the Gladstone Mould -- David Lloyd George -- "A Dynamic Force" -- Andrew Bonar Law -- Tory Puritan -- Stanley Baldwin -- "A Man of the Most Utter Insignificance"? -- James Ramsay MacDonald -- An 'Aristocrat' Among Plain Men? -- Neville Chamberlain -- A Family Affair -- Winston Churchill -- His Finest Hour -- Clement Attlee -- Quiet Revolutionary -- Sir Anthony Eden -- Self-Destruction of a Prince Charming -- Harold Macmillan -- Idealist into Manipulator -- Sir Alec Douglas-Home -- Right Man, Wrong Century? -- Harold Wilson -- Master -- or Victim -- of the Short Term -- Edward Heath -- Cheerleader for Europe -- James Callaghan -- Labour's Conservative -- Margaret Thatcher -- Grocer's Daughter to Iron Lady -- John Major -- "Thatcherism with a Human Face" -- Tony Blair -- Governing Against his Party -- Appendix: Prime Ministers of the 20th Century -- Index.