Britain's Prime Ministers

Overview

This useful single-volume collection combines an introductory essay on the emergence and changing role of the British prime minister with 51 concise biographies of the people who have played this role, from Sir Robert Walpole at the beginning of the 18th century to current prime minister Tony Blair. These essays reveal how each figure molded the office in response to the situation of the time, and the preface by Lord Butler adds insight into the present-day workings of the office.

Reviews

"Concise biographies...made all the more engrossing by their brevity." —This England

"These elegant essays could hardly be bettered." —Country Life

"Impressive, eminently readable, fills a distinct gap . . . entries show evidence of wide, thoughtful, up-to-date reading . . . will stand the test of time." —Journal of Liberal History

A well-written and handsomely illustrated tome, which includes short essays on each of the fifty-one premiers from Walpole onwards." —The Political Quarterly

Author Biography

Roger Ellis is the author of the last volume in the Who's Who in British History series and an editor of Winston Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples.Geoffrey Treasure is a contributor to the Encyclopedia Britannica on Europe and the Enlightenment, the New Dictionary of National Biography, and the general editor of the eight-volume Who's Who in British History series. Lord Butler served Wilson and Heath as Private Secretary, and Thatcher, Major, and Blair as Cabinet Secretary.