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£30.00
Margaret Thatcher was the longest-serving Prime Minister of the 20th century and one of the most influential figures of the postwar era. Volume two of Moore’s acclaimed biography covers the central, triumphal years of her premiership, from the Falklands to the 1987 election. Based on unrestricted access to all Lady Thatcher’s papers, unpublished interviews with her and all her major colleagues, this is the indispensable portrait of a towering figure of our times.
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No American statesman has been as revered and as reviled as Henry Kissinger. Hailed by some as the ‘indispensable man’, whose advice has been sought by every president from Kennedy to Obama, Kissinger has also attracted immense hostility from critics who have cast him as an amoral Machiavellian – the ultimate cold-blooded ‘realist’. Niall Ferguson has created an extraordinary panorama of Kissinger’s world, and a paradigm-shifting reappraisal of the man. Only through knowledge of Kissinger’s early life can we understand his debt to the philosophy of idealism. And only by tracing his rise, fall and revival as an adviser to John F. Kennedy, Nelson Rockefeller and, finally, Richard Nixon can we appreciate the magnitude of his contribution to the theory of diplomacy, grand strategy and nuclear deterrence.
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Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, dominated the 18th century in the same way that Napoleon dominated the start of the 19th – a force of nature, a caustic, ruthless, brilliant military commander, a monarch of exceptional energy and talent, and a knowledgeable patron of artists, architects and writers, most famously Voltaire. From early in his reign he was already a legendary figure – fascinating even to those who hated him. Tim Blanning’s biography recreates a remarkable era, a world which would be swept away shortly after Frederick’s death by the French Revolution. Equally at home on the battlefield or in the music room at Frederick’s extraordinary miniature palace of Sanssouci, Blanning draws on a lifetime’s obsession with the 18th century to create a work that is in many ways the summation of all that he has learned in his own rich and various career.
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William II (1087-1100), or William Rufus, will always be most famous for his death: killed by an arrow while out hunting, perhaps through accident or perhaps murder. But, as John Gillingham makes clear in this book, as the son and successor to William the Conqueror it was William Rufus who had to establish permanent Norman rule. A ruthless, irascible man, he frequently argued acrimoniously with his older brother Robert over their father’s inheritance – but he also handed out effective justice, leaving as his legacy one of the most extraordinary of all medieval buildings, Westminster Hall.
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William IV, ‘the Sailor King’, is best known for his naval career and for living for twenty years with the actress Mrs Jordan, with whom he had ten children. Knight’s book shows that William was pretty much a disaster in whatever field he found himself.
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Anne Curry explores how Henry’s hyperactive efforts to expunge his past failures, and his experience of crisis – which threatened to ruin everything he had struggled to achieve – defined his kingship, and how his astonishing success at Agincourt transformed his standing in the eyes of his contemporaries, and of all generations to come.
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Known as ‘the anarchy’, the reign of Stephen (1135-1141) saw England plunged into a civil war that illuminated the fatal flaw in the powerful Norman monarchy, that without clear rules ordering succession, conflict between members of William the Conqueror’s family were inevitable. But there was another problem, too: Stephen himself. With the nobility of England and Normandy anxious about the prospect of a world without the tough love of the old king Henry I, Stephen styled himself a political panacea, promising strength without oppression.
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Just as this book is being published, Elizabeth II will become the longest serving monarch who ever sat on the English or British throne. Yet her personality and influence remain elusive. This book, by a senior politician who has spent significant periods of time in her company, and is also a distinguished historian, portrays her more credibly than any other yet published.
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The short, action-packed reign of James II (1685-88) is generally seen as one of the most catastrophic in British history. James managed, despite having access to tremendous reserves of good will and deference, to so alienate his supporters that he had to flee for his life. And yet, most of that life was spent not as king but first as heir to Charles II, as Duke of York (after whom New York is named) and then in the last part of his life as the first Jacobite ‘pretender’, starting a problem that would haunt Britain’s rulers for generations.
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Queen Victoria inherited the throne at 18 and went on to become the longest-reigning female monarch in history, in a time of intense industrial, cultural, political, scientific and military change within the United Kingdom and great imperial expansion outside of it (she was made Empress of India in 1876). Overturning the established picture of the dour old lady, this is a fresh and engaging portrait from one of our most talented royal biographers.
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William III (1689-1702) and Mary II (1689-94) were Britain’s only ever joint monarchs. They changed the course of the entire country’s history, coming to power through a coup (which involved Mary betraying her own father), reestablishing parliament on a new footing and, through commiting Britain to fighting France, initiating an immensely long period of warfare and colonial expansion. Jonathan Keates’ book makes both monarchs vivid, the cold, shrewd ‘Dutch’ William and the shortlived Mary, whose life and death inspired Purcell to write some of his greatest music.
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Through a series of astonishing dynastic coups, Henry II (1154-89) became the ruler of an enormous European empire. One of the most dynamic, restless and clever men ever to rule England, he was brought down both by his catastrophic relationship with his archbishop Thomas Becket and his debilitating arguments with his sons, most importantly the future Richard I and King John. His empire may have ultimately collapsed, but in Richard Barber’s vivid and sympathetic account the reader can see why Henry II left such a compelling impression on his contemporaries.
